Groups

"After all is said and done, more is said than done." ~Aesop
This is particularly true when working is groups of people, no matter what the situation is.

In world history, we just finished presenting a group project on government. Lucky me got stuck with the chatterbox of the class in my group, the math genius, and two other guys. I had perfect, but maybe not very creative, plan for the project that would have gotten us passed, but more was being said by the chatterbox and those two other guys than I could talk over to get my point across. The math genius ended up creating the PowerPoint while the rest of us wrote lame one to two minute speeches, which was less than required I do believe. I feel like my attempt at leading the group to success was fully thwarted by people who had no idea what to do but talk. Don't get me wrong, they're nice people, but groups like this are the hardest situation for success in school.

Another example of this can be seen in my band. It's not actually "my band" because it wasn't me who brought the members together, but I'm lucky enough to be a part of it. We've only had one meeting so far which consisted of A LOT of talking about what we wanted to play, compose, etc... It doesn't help when the drummer who has no clue what they're doing goes off on different topics or starts drumming on everything in site. So there I was, trying to focus and talk about actual band issues while telling the drummer to quiet down to no avail. Eventually, we decided the song we're gonna learn for the next band meeting, and it's decided that I'm supposed to record my lil composition ditty and send it to the lyricist. It's been over two weeks since that first meeting and all it's been is talk. My dad says he'll find the microphone so I can record what I need but I doubt that's going to happen. It's doesn't help me that the song is still in the works and we (meaning the band as a whole and not myself) already want to put lyrics to it. I mean, it's only my second composition and I really doubt it'll turn out any good. It takes hours of my constant fiddling of just a few measures at a time to make it sound the way it does in my head. (I won't even contemplate how long it will take to write parts for the different instruments.) Don't get me wrong, I love all the people in the band, but working in groups is probably what deters so many solo artists from joining a concrete group.

In order for a group of people to be successful, they all need to have the right mindset. This mindset is usually the common goal of success. If one person in the group feels like slacking off or has other things on their mind like, I don't know, boys for instance, then the whole group is screwed. I know this from personal experience. And when this one person, or possibly several people, refuse to complete a portion or any of the necessary work, I feel like I'm always the one who has to pick up the pieces and overwork because the others don't care what grade they get. I'm just sick of working in groups in general until finally there are others who have the same mindset and thoughts as me. Maybe I have too high of expectations from high school kids, but eventually they'll have to learn it's easier to cooperate and get paid than always having to suck it up to the boss-man and squeal "I can't collaborate with these people, but next time I promise to work through it anyways." That's what gets people fired.

Groups are essential to our way of life, as we interact with people through work meetings, family meetings, political meetings, neighborhood meetings, and any other meetings of people like parties and other social gatherings. Sooner or later, people will learn to understand that working together for a common good is easier than rebelling against the norm. I hope to goodness that it's sooner rather than later or our future generations are doomed to learn bad habits of interaction.

B-sharp, never B-flat, always B-natural
:C) ♫ŤΔΜΪΞ