Collection of Poem Things

I Do DI

I do DI. I do duct tape fixes everything. I do straws as bridges and mailing labels as the glue to hold my life together. Because those little sticky pieces of paper can weather zip lines among other hard times.

Times like Grace wants to build a robot out of packing peanuts but Melissa would rather styrofoam cups. Times where we have to sacrifice a grandiose set for a light, portable one. Times where we thought we were done at regionals but we made it through. Times where we've felt the doom in a bad IC. Times where summers felt more empty than free due to the lack of a team with a bond that will last a lifetime.

Because we do DI.

We do compromise. We do kids who fall through our sets an hour before we perform. We do the shrinking of a team till it's four. We do more losses than wins. We do first, second, but never third place. Which is weird because good things are supposed to come in threes. But we press on, because we know the feeling of a trip to globals. Even if we didn't win the tournament.

And we'll never forget freshmen year. When lost state but kept our set. Our regional director called a month later and said that it was good we had yet to throw it away because we were globals bound. We went on a fluke, but we later found with our 16th place ranking that we deserved to be there. And Grace could swear that I was so excited I yelled loud enough for the whole library to hear.

Not that we were surprised. I've always been the loudest. The immediate leader. The go to theater girl in an IC. To clumsy for structures, but the first to tell the team to trust her when Grace comes up with a crazy idea.

Grace is always the quiet thinker. The one to tinker with a structure in the final seconds of an IC, when we all screamed "NO!" and the appraisers thought "holy crap" because Grace's single tap seemed to defy the laws of physics. Our go to in a tech IC, and always ready to tag team with Melissa when it comes to construction.

Melissa is most well rounded. The one to dumbfound us with her writing. Witty doesn't even begin to cover her. And she doesn't immediately jump in when it comes to ideas, but that makes her sure to approve ones that will make us successful. She silently thinks while we may argue, knowing that the loudest voice may not always be the best to follow. There are times when we wallow in the pit of poor scores, but she drags us back to shore with computer ideas we never thought of. So despite the fact that she hasn't been on the team as long as the rest of us, she can create a solution that often beats the teams we've always been worried about.

Ezzera is our wild card. The guy to handle the hard times with a cool smile and a "let's not get riled up" attitude. The dude we may discount until he says something brilliant. A loner who would rather do things his own way. The stoner who leaves us wondering where he went during practice. But who always pulls through, even if we foolishly doubted he would.

I do DI. I do family. All four of us may be from different walks of life, but we've reached unprecedented heights as our little band of misfits. A group that somehow clicks despite all our differences. A group that is there for each other through thick and thin. Even when we don't win, or when we're sick. Which did happen once.

Our first year as team. I relapsed with childhood leukemia. It was February so we were just near regionals, and as fear rolled through my family, my team was there. Even if I wasn't. Year two I had just undergone a bone marrow transplant and couldn't go to school, or DI. But I would drool at the thought of getting to be back on my team. So I helped behind the scenes, making evil eyes and goblets. With the thought that it wouldn't be long until I could perform with them. And when I got the okay in 4th grade there was nothing my parents or doctors could say to keep me away.

Doing DI has meant that I have learned more than I could imagine. That I can build a bride in five minutes, find solutions other haven't thought of, and that the love of a DI team is one that few find. So although my time with my team is coming to an end, I know that my friends and the moments we've shared will never leave me. And I'm so thankful we've gotten to grow up seeing the power of a team, when given the right materials.

Because I've done DI.