Pre-OP

We (JamFep) have another group meeting tomorrow before our oral presentation on Tuesday. I must say, I'm almost glad that Tuesday is coming and this will be over soooooooooooon. But, until it hits Tuesday 11.30am, I will save my happy dance. I'm sorry I sound a bit jaded here but I guess it is what it is.

As I mentioned in my first post, I don't quite like doing projects and working with people. I think this group project pretty much reinforces that view. But it also brings to mind that group projects are inevitable in life. After almost two years of not doing group projects, I felt that it was extremely tedious this time round. Upon reflection in class, I found that what made it most difficult was the fact that people trust themselves more than they trust each other. Haha, I'm not being cynical. It is just the way it is. Everybody felt that their way was the better way, their sentence was the better sentence, their format was the better format. It was a tad difficult to come to a consensus and it was especially tiring to do it for every small bit of detail. As such, we have had multiple group meetings (and I don't mean the online kinds) where the four of us just sit in front of a computer each, all of us staring at a different section of our proposal on google docs and then asking out loud if something should be changed and asking for suggestions as to how to go about changing it. Editing was never completed; we just continued changing and changing. Somebody would edit a part and then somebody else would say that it wasn't done well enough and so on and so forth. It was extremely surprising, after getting back our proposal, how many language errors still lingered in the final draft! Sorry, I'm just droning.

It was mentioned in class that a solution to such a problem would be to have a head writer. Hmm...easier said that done. Like I said, people trust themselves more than they trust others. Why would you allow somebody else make the final decisions when you feel strongly about the work you have done?

I felt like I tried my best in fulfilling my obligations and responsibilities as a group member of JamFep. My only letdown (in my opinion) was when I overslept and was 2 hours late for a meeting last Thursday. Sorry guys!

I certainly don't think that I was disadvantaged by being in JamFep. I mean, yes, it would be easy for me to say that things would have been much easier if I was in WonderWomen or The Rocks---they seem to have pretty pleasant group dynamics. However I felt that I have learnt quite a bit about dealing with people. I've also learnt quite a bit about myself. I've learnt that I'm an adaptive person. I can adapt and work to the different personalities others bring into a group. I am able to find agreeable compromises between my ideals and the ideals of others. Within the few weeks of working in such a vibrant group, I find that that seems to be my main role in the group. Feel free to disagree (and then comment on it), but this is my bird's eye view. I have also learnt that I am generally an easy-going person but when my patience is tested, I don't pull punches. I think that was demonstrated a couple of times during the duration of this project. Heh. That's definitely something to be improved on. I need to learn to be more patient with people. For that, I really admire Feodor. He has been under immense pressure from the different projects he is handling and yet he has been calm thus far. Personally, I felt that he's the one in the group who has been keeping the crazies together.

On Friday before class, Michelle and I were just talking and she mentioned how wonderful the rapport among the WonderWomen is and how they are all proclaiming their love for each other and I said that I could probably never bring myself to say I love JamFep. Mean as it is, you guys all know it's true. HAHA. While I don't love all of you, I do thank you all for making these few weeks as civil and as bearable as possible and thank you all for putting so much blood and sweat into this project. As Feodor said, there was a lot of "animosity", but we wouldn't be stuck at Com Centre past midnight arguing with each other if we didn't want this to be amazing. Once again, thank you and please, God please, let tomorrow be productive and let Tuesday 11.30am be here sooooooooooooon.