Okay, I know that you’re supposed to write on your job applications and resumes that you “work well with others.” But to be honest, that’s never been me and probably never will be me. That fact has never been clearer until now.
If you’re a Communications major at Penn State, you might be familiar with the class, COMM 403 or Mass Media Law. Now, no law class is a piece of cake, but up until this week I didn’t mind it.
I can appreciate those that are taking this class because they want to be lawyers one day, but I don’t. So when my professor asked us to participate in a “moot court” or mock court case, I was skeptical.
I’m not a lawyer, folks. The most I know about legal studies comes from watching “Legally Blonde” over 100 times.
However, I’m not the type of girl to back down from a challenge, and this was no different.
To make a long story short, for our moot court groups we were paired into groups of six, and then my group of six would be paired with three other groups of six equaling 24 people in total.
Have you ever tried to work in a group with 24 people? Well, if you’re planning on doing so I would recommend some intensive therapy beforehand.
Each group of six is responsible for completing some part of a document that included a summary of the case, an argument for each side of the case and questions that the pretend-Supreme Court justices might ask the lawyers.
Remember how I said earlier that I wasn’t a big fan of group work? The reason for that is that I don’t trust other people with my grade, especially when my professor said we would all be getting the same grade for our performance.
The document was due at noon on Monday, and by 11 p.m. on Sunday night, the only edits that had been made to this document were the ones that my friends and I had done.
This is where things get messy; mainly because I have no problem being the HBIC at all times.
I proceeded to send this e-mail to the parties involved:
Personally, I didn’t see any issues with what I said, and if I had the opportunity I would send that e-mail again because afterwards my other group members decided to complete their work.
When I sent that e-mail I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be the most popular one in my group; that was alright with me. I had my friends in my group and I wasn’t concerned with making anymore.
I figured that there would be some push back from my request, but I never assumed that my group members would take time out of their day to sh*t talk me.
It turns out that a few group members decided to make a GroupMe and one thing that you have to understand is that, unlike iMessage, if a new person joins a group, they can still see everything that’s said before joining it.
Needless to say, they were not pleased. So much so, that they gave me a new nickname:
Yep, this was the day that I officially became “Angry email girl.” I think it’s a fitting name if you ask me. So, I was a bit hurt for a few minutes. However, then I decided to make a joke out of their opinions.
At the end of the day, I made sure that I had the last laugh. So thank you, COMM 403, for giving me my new nickname and for reminding me why I hate group work.