“When birds fly in the right formation, they need only exert half the effort.
Even in nature, teamwork results in collective laziness.” — Despair.com

Teamwork can be a double-edged sword. When you are fortunate enough to be placed in a group of cooperative, communicative and like-minded individuals, study groups can be a truly wonderful thing. However, the flip side to that is when you find yourself hopelessly stuck with apathetic and unresponsive duds. All it takes is one or two of these freeloaders to completely ruin your college experience, especially when your college puts so much emphasis on the work produced by the “learning team.”

For just about two years, I had the pleasure of working with a team that was pretty cohesive and fun to learn with. Since we’re done with our core classes, the group has since disbanded. Now we’re all just trying to finish up the last of our general education classes so that we can finally obtain our Bachelor’s in Information Technology. Finals potlucks comprised of Red Bull and Twinkies are a thing of the past. Now, every class brings new faces and a new learning team to join.

In an e-mail that I received from one of my old teammates today, he said, “Just remember that those people in your class are there solely for your personal entertainment and you’ll be less stressed out.” We shared war stories about our separate experiences in new groups. He always had a “don’t worry, be happy” attitude towards life that often helped me keep things in perspective when school got rough. The 3 original teammates were the driving factor that kept me in school and prevented me from throwing in the towel on my education. One was the leader, the rock that always kept us focused, positive and encouraged. The second, the Red Bull & Twinkies guy was the prolific writer of the group who could literally write about anything — profusely and eloquently. The third was a programming guru who consistently put in a tremendous amount of effort toward our group projects. We all had our strengths and our roles in the team. We worked well together and the two years seem to whiz by.

Now, with less than 6 months to go without them, it seems like an eternity ahead.

“Just remember that those people in your class are there solely for your personal entertainment and you’ll be less stressed out.” Practical advice. Now, if I can heed it, I just might survive.

Pass the Red Bull and Twinkies, please.

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