Final Hoorah

"So, was going to Globals worth it?", my mom asked. We were sitting on the plane headed back home from Tennessee. My sister and I are both on Destination Imagination teams and all three of us had been at the Global Finals competition at the University of Tennessee for the past five days. 

My initial instinct was to tell her that no, it hadn't been worth it. Missing almost a whole week of classes and the stress of fundraising the cost of the trip had taken a toll on my life in a very busy time of the year. With the SATs, a new job, and finals week right around the corner, I had questioned if the pros of the five day trip were worth the cons. But sitting on that plane, I couldn't tell my mom that I wished I hadn't gone. The time I spent and experiences I shared with my team, my friends -- those were worth a lot.

Our set at Global Finals 2012

Destination Imagination is essentially a creative problem solving competition. Each year there are six categories of challenges to choose from: scientific, technical, structural, fine arts, project outreach, and improv. As I've gotten older, DI has become less about the competition and more of a vehicle for creativity, and the four girls I compete with have become some of my closest friends. Over the years, my team has always picked the fine arts or structural challenges, something with a prepared solution -- props, a scripted skit, etc. For our last year of DI, however, we chose the improv challenge, something we had never even considered, thinking it to be too risky and, frankly, terrifying. 

The improv challenge (titled "Pandemonium" this year) proved to be entirely less terrifying than we had thought, but just as much work. With five minutes of planning time to incorporate unknown elements with the ones we could research in advance, and then five minutes to present an improvised skit, the challenge was completely different from our past experiences with DI, but not unmanageable. Over the span of seven months, we all fell smoothly into certain roles, and found our rhythm as a team. I would be lying if I said that meeting wasn't tedious at times, however. Since the only way to prepare for our challenge was to practice, practice we did. Even after a particularly bad run, everyone had to get back up and do it again. 

Our team made it through Regional and State competitions with first place trophies, and even managed to earn a DaVinci Award for outstanding creativity (which was a complete surprise given our rookie-status in the improv challenge). After State, everybody bought their plane tickets to Tennessee, and the frantic fundraising began.

The scale of Global Finals is difficult to explain. 15,000 people from all over the world fill the entire UT campus, and the competition runs for five days just so every team can participate. The scale is also what makes the experience so incredible. Globals gives you the opportunity to talk with kids from everywhere from China to Texas, people from all over who all share the same value of the creativity. There's always something to do, new people to meet. Even though the gathering is a competition, it feels more like a giant celebration of the creative spirit. 

We stayed in a dorm quad with two beds to a room, and I shared a room with Charlotte. The five of us were together most of the time -- we ate the terrible cafeteria food together, walked together, competed together, went to parties together. Since we're older, we had the freedom to explore the campus without needing a chaperone. One night after we had finished our main challenge and our instant challenge (another part of competition in DI), my team, my sister, and a couple of kids from her team spent hours just talking and stargazing outside. 

My sister's DI team

The jumbo-tron when 3rd place was announced

Closing Ceremony took place on the last night, in the huge basketball arena. We all put on our Oregon DI tee-shirts and walked along with the bustling crowd to get in. The excitement was almost palpable in the air. After a nostalgic montage/wrap-up video played from the jumbo-tron, some DI alumni began handing out trophies and medals. I squeezed Julia's hand as the winning improv teams were announced. Neither my sister's nor my team made it into the top ten in our age groups, but the Theories of DI-tivity (an elementary team with the siblings of my teammates and my sister's teammates) won 3rd place in the improv challenge. There were tears of joy amidst the cheering and screaming as the little team ran up to the podium to get their medals. Their victory and excitement was just as special to me as my own team's would have been.

The Theories on stage

After closing ceremonies were over, we grabbed some snacks and strawberry slushies at the teen party, took some photos, and headed back to the dorm. The final scores were posted, and my team took 18th place out of over 90 teams. After our challenge didn't go amazingly well, none of us expected to get top ten, and so even making it into the top twenty was a great accomplishment for us. We competed in a category with a lot of incredibly talented and experienced improvisers. Everybody was happy and exhausted.

I'm glad I decided to go. I think it's easy for people my age to get wrapped up in stressful routine. Going somewhere and accomplishing something, creating something with people you care about can remedy that in a way that is both comforting and empowering. Global Finals marked the end of my journey through DI, and served as a final hoorah for me and my team. That plane ride back home was bitter-sweet as I reflected on all the good memories I had shared with my friends over the years, and accepted that I was nearing the end of my time with them. Perhaps in the future I'll go back to Global Finals as a team manager or even as a parent. In the meantime, I will remember it as the punctuation at the end of my childhood, and a testament to the power of friendship and creativity.

My response to my mother's question? "It was worth it."