The Journey and the Destination

There is an organization called "Destination Imagination." For the last five years or so my kids have been involved with it. It takes creative problem solving and planning and turns into a type of competition with teams coming together on tournament day, presenting their solutions and being judged. At the end of the day there is an awards ceremony where the top three teams from each category are announced and these three teams move on to the state finals.

This happened yesterday. My kids are not involved in any other competitive activity besides this, so it feels like a pretty big deal. The great thing this year was that my daughter joined my son's team so I did not have to run around trying to figure out how I was going to be able to see both their performances. Also, since all the kids involved were so experienced and the fact that they picked an Improvisational Challenge, they did not have to endure long weekly practice sessions. Four half day meetings, some individual research, and they all felt pretty prepared.

We saw the other High School level teams present their "Central Challege" soluton and knew our team kicked their butt, but that's only 1/2 the score. The other half comes from an "Instant Challenge." A task is presented to them that the team has only a few minutes to decide together how best to solve and another few minutes to present their solution to the judges
.
This part of the competition is closed to everyone but the team, their manager, and the judges and they are all sworn to secrecy so that other teams will not be able to know in advance and pre-plan their solution.

The only thing we knew after the Instant Challenge was that they ran out of time before they got to all the elements needed in the solution.

When they announced the results at the awards ceremony, we were all estatic when we found out we had taken first place. They also give out special awards, which are very prestigious cause they are only given to teams who go above and beyond expectations and really stand out. The team recieved two such awards. The "DaVinci" award for exceptional innovation; hardly ever recieved in the Improv Challenge and the "Spirit of D.I." award for the best showing of team cooperation, motivation and team work for their Instant Challenge. Their team manager said she was sure they got this because of the awesomely inclusive and respectful way they worked together and also the fact that when they ran out of time, knowing that they had lost major points for not completeing it, they all just congratulated each other and said what a good job everyone had done.

Isn't it great that there is a competition out there that give major points and awards for this type of behavior?

I have complained in the past about this thing that they're involved in. Some of it can be annoying. The leaders of the organization can seem like over-age cheerleaders and a bit over the top in the sticky sweet enthusiasm. The award ceremony, though was much better than any other year, is loud, abnoxious and and irritating. The waiting around all day can get boring but you know what?

All in all, this is one really terrific organization and my kids have benefited from it in so many ways, some of which are not even measurable. The whole team building and working together as a group skill will be invaluable in their lives. I'm really grateful for us to be apart of this.

So it's off the Elk Grove, near Sacramento, for the State Finals. If they place here, the next step will be the Global Finals in beautiful Tennesee. We've reached State level before but I have not really wanted them to have to go to Globals, which they haven't, ( too far, too expensive, taking up too much of my precious time etc.) but I think this year I'm rooting for it a bit. My son is 17 now and this may be his last year on the team and with my daughter being on the same team it would be quite an experiece for them both.

So I leave by saying thanks to all the hard working pople who give so much of themselves so that kids like mine can have this fantastic experience. And team, GOOD LUCK!