Diary of a College Senior

March 27 - Some Have It All

Monday, March 27, 2018

I've always had a rebellious streak in me. Choosing to have selective hearing when my parents give me advice and disliking anyone who tries to boss me around. Maybe that's why I've always suffered under corporate environments and strict managers. There's just something about following orders without question that irks me to the bone.

One thing that I find especially annoying in university group projects is overly bossy group members. They are a little better than the group members who are always missing and do no work, but they are still difficult to live with.

Yes, I am talking about S. I think I've mentioned her quite a few times lately. She is the typical sort who enjoys bossing other group members around even though nobody made her the leader of the group. But the thing that irks me the most is that S. would delete your work and tell you that it is wrong right to your face, and then proceed to ask you to redo everything.

Talk about tact! Girl, you're not gonna get any respect when you go out into the real world and talk like that to your peers, superiors, and those working under you like that! And don't get me started, she complains about the rest of us not doing any work when it is her that is deleting everyone's 'sub-standard' work. I've given up trying to contribute to our powerpoint presentation because everything I put, even if it's a picture of a smiling construction worker, gets deleted!

Hear me out. Don't be this person when you are working in a group.

Yesterday, when the six of us all got together for a group meeting, Toby went with Blair and me to grab lunch and took the opportunity to ask about S.

"I've never worked with her, but is she always like this?" He asked.

"Yeah, she has a reputation for being difficult to work with," I told him.

We all agreed that although it's better than a group member who is MIA all the time, it's still really, really, REALLY, annoying.

When I look at my other group members for my water resource design project - Haley and Pablo, everything's just completely different. We work so perfectly well together.

What's more? Haley is everything that S. is not - Tall, pretty, extremely generous, and without a bossy bone in her body. She's also the only person I know in the program who has secured a permanent job at a locally owned company. Heck, her boss is so nice that he let her and her friends stay at his vacation cottage in Greece for their upcoming graduation trip for free!

I guess some people do have it all. But I am not envious of Haley's success at all. I think she's one of those people who truly deserve it.

As for S., K., Toby, Josef, Blair, and I, none of us have secured a permanent position. Josef's had the most luck, attending two interviews in the last months but both jobs are in small towns that require him to move away.

"I guess it's pretty scary huh, not knowing where we'd all end up next year." He told Blair and me while we were getting lunch.

I couldn't agree more. Toby, Josef, and their friend group were so close, even rooming together back in first two years. Now they will probably all move to different locations all over the country because the job prospects here are so bad.

I don't want to get too sentimental about it but it is the end, after all. One of the guys in their friend group who graduated last year is already working in a small town down south. Addie had had a huge crush on him back then (but he already has a girlfriend), and now her infatuation is just a memory and something we talk about fondly when brought up.

I guess it's about time we all grew up.