#meverick

By Lindsay Pytel

I understand the idea. We live in a society where collaborating with other people is a good thing and necessary. We can’t do everything on our own and we need the skills of working with others, I understand that…and I agree.

However, group projects are still the worst things ever.

The class is made up of all kinds of people. People who want to take the class just because it interests them, people who are required to take the class because it’s a prerequisite or because it’s a part of their curriculum for their major or minor, and then you have those people who got stuck in that class because literally nothing else was available at their time of registration.

So you’re sitting in class and the professor tells you you’re going to be placed in groups for a project. The words are spit from the professor’s teeth and you die a little inside. First of all you know for a fact that you and your friends won’t be placed together, because let’s be honest, that just wouldn’t happen. Second of all, now you have to rely on other people to pull their weight.

You go throughout the whole class, heart pounding, wondering whom you’ll be stuck with to present this project. You think “It’s not due until November. Maybe if I don’t think about it, it won’t happen.”

Then scenarios run through your mind. Maybe if you break your leg you won’t have to do it, but you don’t really want to break your leg and that would probably lead to more problems than just help you get out of a group assignment. So you decide not to break your leg and suck it up.

Finally at the last second of class when you’re basically already out of the door the professor says, “Oh and here are the people in your group project.”

Your eyes scan fast to try and find your name, similar to the way they scan when trying to find your flight on the screen. As soon as you find your name you swing around to try and find the people in your group to exchange information, but those people are nowhere to be found because everyone has already left the classroom.

So you go back to your room and you think “Alright well I’ll just get their information next class…no big deal.” Then you receive an email saying you must meet with your group before next class and submit a project proposal.

So you wait a little bit, maybe someone else will be the leader and try to get the group together. As the clock ticks closer to next class the sweat on your face accumulates. No one is contacting you.

Time to take matters into your own hands.

You search everywhere to find their email address and send out a couple emails. Still no response. Did they go through? Did I get the email right? What does CC mean again?

As your partners still don’t answer your email…you get a little desperate. You start asking your friends “Do you know them?” and you feel kind of like a police officer looking for a missing person.

Then when none of your friends know who these people are you start stalking social media. You find them on Facebook and message them and with 20 minutes to spare you hand the assignment in on time.