Group Projects

Group projects were the ban of my existence during high school. I wouldn't say I was a control freak, but I don't like to do half work. Coming to a private university, I thought that I wouldn't have to suffer through horrid group projects.

But, ce'st la vie.

My latest group project has given me a migraine for the last few weeks. First, it took my group (consisting of one other girl and one boy) over a week to decide a topic. When we finally decided on one... it took forever to figure out what to do with it. The girl, let's call her "Mary," couldn't for the life of her say her opinion. The boy, let's name him "John," couldn't stop giving his opinion.

Now, I'm a opinionated person, but I do try to listen to others before I jump in with mine. Other people... *John*.... do not listen.

I was the only person in our little trio that knew how to create a iMovie, so shouldn't it be me who decides what was and was not complicated. Every time I voiced an option, John would shoot it down claiming it was too complicated. Then, he would wonderfully bring up his ideas. They had so many special effects that it is insane. He just assumed that I knew everything.

... It was annoying.

Then, he was trying to tell me how to work a camera. And how to edit a movie.

Thankfully, this last Wednesday I finished it and showed my group. They said it was good and I could finalize it. Late Thursday night, probably around 11:30pm, I sent the link for the video, and got the following reply.

"I didn't notice this before, but the background music makes the tone of our video seem way more serious and sadder than it actually is. Is there a more uplifting background song that will match the cheesiness of the narrator better?"

Uh... excuse me? I spent hours looking for that music. I couldn't even answer him for hours because I was too stressed out about it (I have two papers to work on as well as this stupid video). I decided to meet him in the middle and replied that I would need some suggestions about what he wanted. He replied within the hour, but I didn't bother looking at the e-mail until the morning.

He changed his tone pretty quickly when I turned the tables on him.

"Actually maybe you don't need to change it, I showed [it] to someone and they didn't really notice it. Its more noticeable with headphones on. What do you think? If its too much trouble its probably not worth it. But overall the video looks great."

Sir, you said it was fine just a day before this e-mail. Oh, but it does get better. There was a second e-mail accompanying this reply. There were also some phone calls, voice mails, and texts.

"Sorry for the trouble. I was being a little too analytical. I'm sure [it] will get some laughs out of it. Go ahead and turn it in."

Now I need his permission to turn it in?

Men. I honestly don't understand them right now, and I probably never will.

Maybe I'm a little too harsh on the whole situation, but I've had three papers, two video projects, and four presentations due within these last few weeks and the coming weeks as the semester ends.

I guess I don't handle un-needed (and unwanted) stress really well.

Thoughts? Was I too harsh?

-JoLynne