"I joined [Odyssey of the Mind] because I am naturally strange and I wanted a way to prove it." When I first read this I laughed out loud. Who would say such a thing? Who would admit to that? I was standing in the Barn Theater Lobby in Porterville CA, my fresh-off-the-press yearbook sitting on the ticket window ledge. Though I was alone, I still did a quick glance to see if anyone heard. Then I continued reading, "said club treasurer, Sarah Stufflebeam (Sr.)"
I couldn't believe my eyes. There had to be something wrong. Did I really say that? My mind was blank, and then, searching memories seven months back, I remembered filling out a club questionnaire for the yearbook, and yes, I had written that. What's funny is that it's quite true. What's also funny is that I never imagined anything I wrote would make it into the yearbook, so I was just having fun, being quirky. My writing is never safe when I'm quirky.
I joined Odyssey of the Mind in my Sophomore year of High School, 1997-1998. Some of my friends had been active in the program for many years. I loved the stage, but my school didn't have a drama department, and I was desperate to perform. In my Freshman year I was over at my friends Freda and Jeffery's home, and they had just finished an OM (which is what we called it back then) regional competition. They were showing my family the video of their Classic Teams performance, and we got a quick OM crash course. I was intrigued! Imagination! Creativity! Competition! Performance! Interesting challenges! I had to join! And I did. And it was epic.
What's awesome about Odyssey of the Mind is that it's about all types of creativity. If you're interested in creativity, no matter your skill set or background, there is a place for you in OotM (which is what the abbreviation is now . . . I'll still go by OM, because that was all the rage when I joined). There are six problems, five competitive, and one for the young tykes (K-2). But the main categories are as followed: Vehicles, in which you build a vehicle and perform tasks. Technical, where you build cool contraptions. Classics, problems involving architecture, art, and literature. Structure, where you build a structure with wood and glue, and then see how much weight it holds until it breaks. And Theatrics, in which acting, singing, and dancing is typically involved.
All three years I performed in Classics, and I loved each long term problem my team had the opportunity to solve. My first year we were tasked at creating a health food product and creating a commercial with a theme song. Cream of Pickled Walnut Soup! And Tchaikovsky was our spokes person. The second year was Oh My Fair Shakespeare. We had to create a skit a la West Side Story. What we ended up with was Taming of the Shrew set during the cave man creation of the wheel . . . and our spontaneous song tribute to the flamingo. And my senior year was a King Arthur theme. We had to find an Arthurian legend, portray the original legend, and then portray how the legend came to be without the knights being real. So fun! Lancelot finds a castle with his gravestone, complete with his name, and is then attacked by zombies, or something like that. My senior year was during the 1999-2000 competition season, and my team made it to State and won 3rd place. My brother Michael was on the Technical team where he played a fruit cake, literally, and they also won 3rd at State.
But something else happened that year that was interesting:
"Our organization was incorporated in 1999, when we took over the charter for OM Association, Inc."
That's taken from the Destination Imagination website. This next bit is taken from wikipedia, "After debate over the for profit nature of Creative Competitions, the
controlling corporation for Odyssey of the Mind Inc., a non-profit
organization Destination ImagiNation was created by members of the Odyssey of the Mind Inc. board of directors."
That happened right before my Senior year of High School. My team had heard from our coach that something was going on in the higher OotM levels, and that there was a chance we wouldn't be competing. From what I heard (and I was getting this info down the line), there was debate in California over which program the State was going to follow: Destination Imagination or Odyssey of the Mind. I heard there was a split in the State, and our region went with OotM. But because of the split, awards, like the ones below, would never be made again.
I heard that in the deal Destination Imagination got rights to OM, and Odyssey of the Mind got to keep their name, but were no longer legally allowed to go by OM, and thus OotM was born. And we were told, as students, never to say we belong to OM. Which was hard! And it didn't last. My friends and I called Odyssey of the Mind OM during our at home meetings, and we still call it OM today.
In 2001 my family moved to Utah. I was graduated, but really wanted my 3 younger brothers to do Odyssey of the Mind. They would have been awesome at it! Michael at least got the opportunity to participate his Freshman year, but I'm sad Steven and Robbie never got the chance. I would have loved to see their long term problems.
See, from all the searching I did, I couldn't find any Utah association to Odyssey of the Mind, though I heard it was once quite popular. What I did find was Utah Destination Imagination info, and since I was still bitter over them taking "OM," though they abbreviate theirs to "DI," I personally didn't want to get involved. Though creativity is still apart of DI, it's not Odyssey! And I've never cared for DI's problems, anyway.
Odyssey of the Mind is the original.
Every so often I check around to see if there's Odyssey of the Mind springing to life here in Utah, and to my relief and surprise I found the Utah Odyssey of the Mind Facebook Page a few months ago.
And Tomorrow is the State Competition in Park City Utah, which is open to the public if you want to check it out!
Taken directly from the Utah's OotM website:
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Ecker Hill Middle School
2465 Kilby Road, Park City
7:30am - 10:00am: Team Registration & Weigh In
9:30am - 3:00pm: Long Term & Spontaneous Competitions
11:00am - 2:00pm: Creativity Festival
11:00am - 3:00pm: Lunch Sales by Park City Pizza Co.
2:30pm - 3:45pm: Crazy Hat & Banner Creation
3:45pm - 5:00pm: Team Parade & Closing Ceremonies
Noticed this little thing called Spontaneous Competitions? That's referring to Sponts. Short term problems a team is given on the spot. I'm bitter towards them. Our team was really bad in this category, and we always dreaded it. The Stage Comp I was in, the King Arthur challenge, well, we placed in the top two spots in both Long Term and Style, but got second to last in Spont. We were so close to World's!!!!
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