In the second Destination Imagination (DI) tournament, I felt like we did an amazing job by spending a lot of time working together to make the end result of us winning an award. This time I was there to perform with my group, and that made a huge difference in how connected and confident I felt on stage. We took the feedback from our first performance and used it to make our final product even stronger. Our storytelling, props, and teamwork came together really well, and it showed in how the judges and audience reacted. I was proud of how we shared the story, with really getting into character. Watching another Scientific group perform before we had to, encouraged us to act even more dramatic, to make it more entertaining and funny.

One area I realized still needs work, is the Instant Challenge. My group really focused on improving our main presentation, we didn’t focus on the Instant Challenge. Moving forward, I will take into consideration practicing all the things needed for the day of DI instead of just the performance. Next time I will spend more time practicing those kinds of challenges so we can stay calm, organized, and creative under pressure. It’s an important part of DI, and doing better in that area would make us a more balanced team.

As a learner I’ve made great progress by putting more effort into preparing for the performance. One thing I’m especially proud of is how I took the time to memorize all my lines. I spent around ten minutes every day for over a week to make sure I knew them by heart, and it really helped me feel more confident when acting. Last minute we had to change a couple lines, but in the end it worked out fine. I’ve definitely grown because in the past I might have rushed through it or waited until the last minute, but this experience taught me that staying consistent over a period of time leads to better results. It also showed me how much I’ve grown in taking responsibility for my role and being ready to contribute towards my group.

Go check out my teammates blogs and their learning journey through DI: Syd, Tyler, Siena, and Kennedy.