Hey Guys, welcome back to another post on My Dog Ate My Blog! Now this one will probably sound familiar, since it is yet another post about Destination Imagination. My last post was about the DI Regional tournament, but just last weekend my team competed in the DI provincial tournament. DI is like a huge challenge with different categories, you compete with other teams in your category for glory! The main focus is creativity and teamwork. If you want to learn more about DI in general and how our regional tournament went (not super great but that was in the past) go check out my “You Have Reached Your Destination… Imagination!” post about the regional tourney. Here is a website with more about DI and proven results in participants, click here!Take a look at some stats, like I said before, real scientifically proven results, and even success stories. Enjoy! Also, here is a video of past Improvisational performers, so you can compare or just sit back and relax.

I should probably let you know before I get too far, that we only had half our group with us, which fit our name even better, 2x the ginge (as in ginger) 2x better, because the only two people that were there were the gingers, Jackson and I. Our two other teammates, Taylor and Aedan had other important things to do, you can read about them on their blogs! 

 

What does a day at DI look like?

Ok, let’s start with how a day at Johnston Heights Secondary, Destination Imagination looks like. Well if we are starting at the very beginning, I was forced to wake up at the early hour of 6:45 to get there on time, but that doesn’t matter. Once we got there, something terrible happened….. WE REALIZED WE FORGOT OUR FORMS!! The forms are what we need to be able to compete in our challenge and we forgot them! So we scavenged around the whole place trying to find extras but couldn’t, so we decided to hand write them… which would have taken literally, the whole time. But luckily, Jackson’s mom was at home and was coming later to watch our challenge and printed our forms which saved us so much time to practice. THANK YOU!! So until our Instant challenge (this mini challenge you do alongside your main one) at 11:00am, we practice, and practiced, and practiced some more. I was so nervous for the instant challenge and our main one. Now, I can’t tell you much about our instant challenge, it’s confidential information. But one thing I can tell you is that it definitely did not go well. But I mean, we were missing half of our team so it’s kind of hard with two people. In between our instant challenge and central challenge we had 4 hours!!

So we ate some lunch, and practiced, watched some other teams, then practiced some more, and then it was time! After our challenge, we were actually the last ones of the WHOLE thing, it was the closing ceremony where you receive ribbons, trophies, medals, etc. Sadly, we didn’t win any but I guess, *whimper*, thats ok😢😂 Then every one drove the long way home back to North Vancouver. It was a really great experience and really fun being there all day with your friends, cheering them on, but eventually, after 10 hours of being there and waiting, I was glad to go home.

What did we change between regionals and provincials?

Our challenge is the improvisational challenge, Treasure! The improvisational challenge this year includes researching eight explorers, eight cultures/cultural treasures and then randomly picking 2 of the explorers and one of the cultures and then performing the skit in front of the appraisers. To make it even harder, we get given an unusual place to find the treasure and a setback. At regionals we didn’t do so well in any of those areas, we were missing a member and it was our first time performing. We were all nervous. So when we got back from that, we decided we were going to practice harder than ever before provincials. Practice projecting, using the stage, and getting to know our characters and places like the back of our hand. But then we got another obstacle thrown at us, not only could Taylor not come, but either could Aedan, and this was last minute.

So the first time Jackson and I performed as just the two of us was the day of. That’s really the only thing we changed, the storyline and the details of the play. For example, if one of us had to switch characters we would say something like “I have to go to the bathroom I’ll be back in a minute”, because there was only two of us and we needed more than just two characters. Whereas when we had 3 people, we had just the right amount of characters and wouldn’t have to switch. We also worked really hard on proper characterization because the feedback we got back from regionals is that when I was on stage I was me, I wasn’t the character I was acting, all you could see was Jordyn, I didn’t use any accents or anything. So I think we did a lot better in that area, it made the performance a lot stronger. I mean, there isn’t much you can change in improv because we don’t have props, costumes, backdrops, anything like that to enhance our skit. The only kind of thing we could actually change was our over all plot line and acting methods.

What went well, what went bad?

What do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news? Let’s get it over with and hear the bad stuff first. Well, the explorers we randomly chose were Elon Musk and Alice in Wonderland, the culture we got were the Torres Straight Islanders, our unusual place was a river stream, and our setback was getting stuck in mud. That is a lot of different improv elements which gives us A LOT of space for things to go wrong. I think one thing that didn’t turn out exactly as it should of was the fact that every time one of us had to switch characters, we would say, “I have to go to the bathroom”, and that was 3 times. So I think we could have changed that up a bit but not a big deal. To be honest, we could have communicated a bit better. You know how you are always supposed to say “yes” in improvisation, well, there were a few times when I literally said “nope” so….. yeah, that’s not great. That’s an easy fix though, i just need to learn to role with it.most of the problems we had were just small ones, actually I think they all were I can’t really think of one huge problem we had. Which brings us to the good news. I love good news *sigh* We actually completed our setback successfully unlike last time! And we didn’t run out of time! (Unlike last time 😬) We did our skit in less than five minutes!! We characterized well, put all the elements together perfectly, and worked well as a team, a 2 person team. 😂 We improved so much since regionals, it’s crazy. You are actually going to freak out, I’m freaking out…. WE CAME 4TH!!! 7 whole points behind third place, that’s it that’s all. That is a huge accomplishment for our team.

The Process

When I look back at the process we followed to get to where we are now, I think of 5 major steps. 1) Recognize: Being introduced to the whole idea of Destinaiton Imagination and recognizingthings like rules. 2) Imagine: This is when we started planning a solution to our challenge and really planning out what we were going to do at DI. 3) Initiate and Collaborate: At this stage, we are well into our research and creation of our solution getting ready for the next stage which is 4) Assess: The assessment stage is when we are done all our research and practicing 24/7 (ok maybe not 24/7) as well as making sure all of the flaws are being straightened out, it’s the final stage before the tournament. 5) Evaluate and celebrate: This is the last stage, the actual performance and then our reflection and celebration of it afterwards.

These steps probably took half of the school year at least, now that may sound like a lot but it went by pretty quick. It was a lot of fun, hard work, and perseverance, but it payed off in the end. I learned so much about team work, competition, and creativity, it’s actually insane! We may have hit a few bumps in the road but they flattened out in the end. I am very thankful for this amazing experience and soooo glad I could be a part of it. I would 100% do it again and recommend it to anyone else that has the chance to participate. Now let’s end with a destination imagination quote, “ If you never do, you’ll never know.”

~Jordyn 😁