Two weeks in, my courses were going relatively smoothly, with only some minor difficulties. I was thankful that most of my classes were online, but I am always a little scared when I step into the building when I have my in-person courses on Tuesdays and Fridays. All was going well until my professor for the “World Disasters, Pandemics, and their Impact” course, which I have Mondays and Thursdays, sent us an email about a change she made to the syllabus. 

The email stated that there would be a final group project worth 35% of our grade that will consist of a group paper and a PowerPoint presentation instead of a final exam. In addition, students will be split into two categories and then assigned to a group; the list will be posted on Blackboard today. Also, the presentations will be in-person despite the course being online. When I first heard this news, I was obviously fucking annoyed.  

Although I have done my fair share of group projects where everyone did their respective portion of the assignment, the latter, thankfully, has been more frequent. Working by yourself always seemed better. I didn’t have to deal with another person or feel like an outsider when my peers had no trouble connecting. 

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard an email notification about an update on Blackboard. Pausing the video I was absentmindedly watching, I opened a new tab to go on Blackboard. I looked under the course announcements to find the group list. 

 

Fuck… 

 

I refreshed the page, then again, then again when I finally realized that my eyes were not deceiving me. 

 

Minerva’s Screen 

Group 5

Ramon Cortes  

Anais Lemaire  

Nova Santos  

Masaaki Shimada  

Minerva Ramirez  

Eloise Velázquez  

 

Fuck, fuck, fuck a group project with five fucking people. I mean, I have done group projects with that many people before, but those were at most worth 10% of my final grade. Crap, what if someone drops the course or doesn’t participate or does a shitty job.   

 

Breath in, Breath out, Breath in, Breath out  

  

I am overthinking this maybe just maybe everybody does their respective portion of the assignment, and we get along smoothly with no problems during our time together. I return to watching the video in hopes of distracting myself from thinking about tomorrow’s class.