Destination ImagiNation: to outsiders, it's a cult; to insiders, it's life

Finally, after many months of preparation, hard work, diligence, procrastination and tons of pizza, they made it. By the time they returned to Maryland at the end of their spring sojourn to Tennessee last year, the team had won 26th in the world in the "DestiNations in Time" challenge.

Since Oct. 10, when the new challenges came out for this year, Blair's Destination ImagiNation® (DI) teams have been revving up for the coming year, ready to go back to Tennessee this spring. DI is not an activity for those who think inside the box. The people who make it to DI globals, held annually at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus, are some of the most innovative, creative and zany minds in all of the youth of the United States of America. At globals last year, there were 14,000 registered competitors and several thousand other people, primarily family members, from 47 states, several Canadian provinces and nine other countries, according to the Destination ImagiNation® web site.

DI...

Destination ImagiNation® Inc. is a non-profit corporation that puts out challenges online once a year for use by elementary, middle, secondary and university level teams.

To compete in DI, "teams of up to seven members choose one challenge and

spend several months perfecting their 'solution' for tournament day," according to the web site. These challenges require the use of technical, costuming and script-writing skills by the team members. DI has three levels of performance for each age range—regional, state and global. For most high-school teams, regional competition is simply a warm-up, as there are usually more slots at states than there are competitors for high-school teams, according to junior Mike Arbit. "At Regionals, you have a guaranteed in. We felt relaxed; it was just practice," Arbit says. At the state level, things are ratcheted up somewhat. "States was much more competitive. We did our best, but we didn't make it to Globals. We spent the entire day trying to perfect everything, but it still didn't work like it was supposed to," Arbit continues. At the Global competition, around 40 teams, the best from each state, province or country, compete in each challenge, making placing high a difficult task.

Junior David White, who was on Arbit's team, which disbanded last year, mentions competition time being rather euphoric. "Last year, I stayed up for 49 hours straight at competition, and I've never done LSD, but I'm guessing it's something like that," White says.

Blair currently hosts five DI teams, with the distinct possibility for more in the coming year. All teams run as an offshoot of Blair's Physics team.

The challenges are coming, the challenges are coming

Anyone who spends much time around junior Abby Goldman, a DI veteran of five years, is likely to hear her talking about it. While most Blazers are starting on their slog through the school year in early October, Goldman is just getting excited; DI challenges are coming. These challenges are a detailed set of guidelines, centering on a technical or theatrical aspect that will dictate what the team is working on over the next several months. Towards the middle of November she starts to lament how little time they have. "Only four months left until Regionals. We're so far behind," she says, still excited.

Abby working on DI

Photo: Abby Goldman works on the team's timing device as the pieces are scattered around her.

Abby Goldman works on the team's timing device as the pieces are scattered around her. Photo courtesy of Jordan Goldstein.

Each performance must run under eight minutes. For instance, Goldman's team completed the challenge "DestiNations in Time" last year. In this challenge, the team had to design, build and operate their own timing device of some sort, perform some tasks on a schedule and then tell a story about what would happen if the team members controlled time. Another challenge from last year called for team members to create an original cartoon story with costumes and characters. The team also had to make sound and visual special effects to complete their presentation.Putting together the finalized presentation is an arduous process. "It starts with a lot of creative brainstorming. Gradually random, unrelated ideas come together to form the plot," says Goldman. "It's usually a masterpiece [when it's done]. There's a lot of last minute tech work to be done. Hopefully, we'll do better on that this year," Goldman says.

White's team did things a little differently last year. "We made a detailed plan the first meeting. Then we didn't talk. Then we stayed up the night before the competition building stuff and making scripts," he says.

Junior Lynn Abe, who is on the same team as Goldman elaborates on what happens in individual meetings. "We'd get to whoever's house, then we'd call for pizza and flirt with the guy on the phone. Then we'd do announcements and catch up with each other. Then we'd break into committees to work on one aspect with only one or two other people," says Abe. "We laugh so much, but we really try to get work done cause it can be really stressful if you don't."

It's all about the people

Abe, who just joined the team last year, says that she joined DI for the friendships. "I hung out with everyone on the team, so I

DI Skit 2004 Regionals

Photo: Juniors Abby Goldman, Tess Minnick and Sarah Janesko present a skit at the 2004 Destination ImagiNation® regional competition.

Juniors Abby Goldman, Tess Minnick and Sarah Janesko present a skit at the 2004 Destination ImagiNation® regional competition. Photo courtesy of Jordan Goldstein.

sorta was [on the team] except I didn't do anything, so they decided to ask me," Abe recalls. "I love just hanging out and laughing. You make some really good friends, They're just really awesome, and that sounds so cliché, but it's really true."Others agree that their teammates were their primary motivation to do DI and stay excited about it. "You get to work with a group of your best friends for an entire year, really get into it and really bond," Arbit says.

Goldman also notes that DI is all about the team. "I love my friends. If I wasn't on a team with six other awesome people, then it wouldn't be as fun," Goldman says with a smile.

Perhaps the slogan of Goldman and Abe's team Xanga accurately sums up what DI is to these creative, innovative and interesting individuals: "DI is more than an obsession. It's life."