My name is Lauren Johnston. To preface, I have participated in Odyssey of the Mind for 8 years and have helped behind the scenes at competitions for another two. My team and I have gone to Worlds three times and have placed there twice. Odyssey of the Mind has made a huge impact on my life and has been a passion of mine for many years. I love to share this passion and community with others, which is part of my reason for making this page. The other, though, is the lack of recognition given to OM.
As a long-time OMer, I have lived through a lot of confusion. Odyssey of the Mind may be a competition with world-wide recognition, but there aren't many Americans who realize that it exists, let alone know how competition works. After the first few excited explanations of what my team is working on and when we are competing next, it gets a little old. My team and I could come back from the world competition with the title of 2nd in the world and my classmates didn't know what the acronym OM stood for.
Through this page, I hope to simplify the explanation of the competition and create a place where those not involved in the OM community can go to understand the inner workings and strange nuances of Odyssey. It was always pretty upsetting to achieve so much in something that no one really recognized. The school board would mention us in a meeting and we would get a passing comment on the announcements, but no one knew what we were doing, how hard we were working, or what our awards really meant for our efforts. So, for all of those OMers out there that experience similar situations, this site is for you to show your friends. Send them here and let me explain it so you don't have to try to fit months of work and years of rules into a short enough explanation so as to not bore them while still not confusing them. I've lived it enough times, I get it.
My team competing at States in 2012
My team from another year performing our skit at World Finals. [Nate Lowrie]