A different kind of group project by Alexis

A different kind of group project by Alexis - March 2024 Scholarship Essay

It was going to be the worst group project of my life. Everyone that knows me knows that I must turn every assignment in early and get it done in an organized manner. That was until this group project. This project was the midterm, making up nearly half of our final grade in the class. The group I was randomly assigned was made up of mostly athletes, who were busy for most of the day because of practices, games, and classes. This project spanned nearly two months of time working together, and it was at our first team meeting that I realized all these strangers had a different work ethic than I do. In my mind this project was the most important thing that I had going on, however with important sporting events as well as other classes the other members of my group did not have the same belief.
I spent hours working on this project to make it perfect, and it felt as if I was the only one, when at our weekly team meetings almost no progress had been made. It was because of this that I decided to have a conversation with my team, I ended up learning that many of the other team members were so stressed out about other classes and commitments, that they felt they were falling behind on this midterm as well as everything else. After that we all decided that it was best if we spent the rest of that team meeting getting to know each other, instead of stressing out over classes and assignments.
In the end the project and presentation went off without a hitch, and we worked well together as a group, and even became friends. It is because of these people that I was able to learn the importance of taking breaks when I am stressed instead of continuing to stress myself out about assignments. I was able to understand that not only do others need to take a breather sometimes, but that I also need to do so, and that sometimes after taking a break, I can come back and do better work than I was doing before.