In a rapidly developing story, it has been all but confirmed that Odyssey of the Mind, that thing you think you did in 4th grade for awhile, was indeed a real thing and not a false memory inserted into your consciousness due to a fever dream you had in 1999.
“We have determined that the youth organization called Odyssey of the Mind did once and continues to exist,” said Dr. Henry Nitkin, the head researcher on the project. “At the height of its popularity, thousands of high-achieving children across the country participated in its truly insane after-school programs and national competitions.”
“So we are truly pleased to be able to provide those now-adults with the reassurance that they did, in fact, build all of those balsa wood structures,” he added. “Those were not a figment of your 9-year-old, chicken-pox riddled imagination, even though it truly, truly feels like it was.”
Former gifted students are relieved.
“All this time, I thought I had hallucinated Odyssey of the Mind that time I got food poisoning at summer camp,” said Jen Lark-O’Reilly, a former smart kid. “It’s honestly pretty gratifying to know that it actually happened and also that it was as absurd as I remember.”
“Yeah I fully assumed that it was something I dreamt as a child during my Lyme Disease scare,” added Keith Webber, another previous overachiever. “I can’t tell you how comforting it is to find this out.”
“Also, all the gifted kids I knew grew up to be really depressed adults, so we’ll really take any win we can get,” he added.
However, though researchers have concluded that Odyssey of the Mind was not a Mandela Effect type of situation, their studies have not been able to provide any explanation as to what the point of the organization was.
“It appears that it was an institution to identify youths with leadership skills disguised as an easy way to get out of class, but also kind of like a real-life version of the show ‘ZOOM’?” said Dr. Meredith Quinn, another researcher. “Even our most advanced techniques couldn’t give us conclusive insight as to what the hell this club even was.”
“We’re planning on submitting this issue as next year’s Odyssey of the Mind national qualifying creative problem to solve,” she added.
