An inevitable task of being social - Essay Example

An inevitable task of being social Meeting and putting up with other people have always been difficult tasks for me, thought it is something that I usually have to deal with day in and day out. Being a student involves meeting more people than I can remember by the time the day is over. Part of being a student is to be social, so putting up with these new unknowns was going to be an inevitable task. It becomes my job to meet many, befriend a few, and put up a tolerable front for those that quickly tried my patience - not every person is worth making ties with. While I try to be outgoing and welcoming, I know that I can also give off an air of impatience and an unwilling to deal with others. When I had to mingle and put up with these new people, I felt kind of exasperated. I knew it was something that I had to do, but I would rather have gone off with people that I knew and were familiar with. Due to these thoughts running through my head, I knew that I was a little less than friendly towards those that were trying to make acquaintances. Some of the people that I meet are a little too overenthusiastic, and it quickly becomes unbearable to spend more than enough time with them. This event sticks in my mind because I know that I did not make a good first impression with everyone and I still feel guilty about that. I am not comfortable with dealing with so many people at one given time, and I know that this showed during that specific moment. I did not feel too positive about the outcome of what took place; on the contrary, the events of the day kept coming back to mind, making me feel increasingly uncomfortable about the whole ordeal. Though this was in regards to how I acted, and not about the fact that I do not always like mass social situations. I always feel that there is one person too many, and it is that person that will test my nerves the most. After all had been said and poorly done, I took the time to fully consider the situation I had repeatedly put myself in that day. The bad aspects of the day had involved my negative attitude towards those that had taken to me with a more positive approach; my less-than-polite responses did very little to help how others viewed me. The entire experience did not go well at all, though I think I got lucky in the fact that very few people noticed this; it was more of an inner battle that I was waging on myself. Some of the good things that came out of my experience was that it was then that I became more tuned in to how I was as a person and how I treated others. When I do get negative, it is never on purpose or with the intent to hurt others, so this situation gave me a chance to evaluate myself as a person, which in turn gave me insight into how I can change for the better. When I first set out for that fateful day, I admit that I was excited, yet a little anxious. I knew what would come with the day, and I knew that I had no way around it. I approached the day with an attitude that was bordering on negative. I was able to keep a good persona around the first few people that I met and was introduced to, though things started to go downhill when many of them started to hang around with no signs of wanting to go off anywhere else. While I do enjoy spending time with friends, I do like people who are simply clingy, especially when I have not known them that long; this was one of those cases. As the day went on, I continued to meet new people every which way that I went; they seemed to be everywhere. I realized that the more of my acquaintances that kept coming back, the more negative and anxious I was getting for the day to end, so that I may return home and away from people. I also noticed that as the day went on, the less my own friends would be in my company. I knew that my lack of enthusiasm for meeting others was not helping my own friendships, but it was not something that I could help. Very little turned out well that day, as I recall. I was thrilled to see the end of the school day, knowing that the next day could not be any worse. As an almost joint effort between me and the people that I met, none of us were very intuitive to how the others might have felt; they were unaware of how I was feeling in regards to meeting them and having some of them hang around, just as I was not aware of how nervous they were and wanted someone to help them help. Needless to say, the day turned out to be nothing like I had originally expected. I cannot say that I knew what I was up against, it was just something that I assumed. Unfortunately, I had to find the negative in a situation that I had yet to be in. When the time finally came to go through this experience, I was only expecting the negative portions. The day could have gone so much better if I had not been so eager to make it meet my pessimistic expectations. This was definitely one experience that I did learn from, though I wish I had had this knowledge before the incident took place. I learned from this experience that if I am to expect something, I should be more positive about it. While I do feel guilty for how I may have made those other people feel, it is nothing compared to how I feel in regards to my actions towards my friends. I learned how emotions can not only effect the person displaying them, but those that they are around. Unspoken emotions may clash, so it is important to try to at least get a vague idea of how others may feel. I know that I did not make of their days enjoyable, just as mine hadn't been. If I got to do this again, and I know I probably will, I will approach the situation with a little more optimism. While I may feel the same about having to put up with other people, I can at least make it easier on myself and others by being more helpful with my attitude. If I do not wish to spend time with people that I hardly know, I can find a polite and gentle manner of telling them. Many people go through the same experiences, especially when it comes to having to work in groups with other people. These are responses that I got from other people in regards to putting up with and tolerating other people while working in groups. Kubra Ahmed: I agree that it has been difficult to get the whole group involved with getting the work done as everyone works at different speeds and everyone has different techniques, but what i love is that, everyone can view each other's work without having to be together as it is impossible to get everyone together all the time. Sanam Baig: I think that using Wiki, has been very helpful as we can view everyone's work in the group, and we can help support and advice each other when required, so that even if we all work at different speeds, we know that we are all going in the right direction. So that at the end, we finish with all our parts covered, that are required for the assessment. Angela Walker: I feel that as an assessment for academic effort the group work is not appropriate. As a formative method it is useful as it does help students to perform as a team, however in this instance I feel that it was inappropriate as it was a summative assessment. Being told that if one person in the group failed all failed, I feel was more divisive than encouraging, especially as the groups were chosen, apparently at random by the tutor. This placed students whose academic performance on the course had to date been minimal, and others who were putting in effort. This left some of us to play 'mum' to others, who clearly could not put the work in. This in turn led to disgruntled, angry and upset group members. Eventually we were told that we would all be judged on our individual performances and not all fail together, the pressure was then off, but then this begs the question 'why do group work'?. The wiki itself was easy and effective to use. I just feel that summative group work is not valid, unless the groups are chosen with a different criteria. Karina Austin: Most of my time spent doing this group work was wasted on chasing a group member for their work, which they hadn't obviously done until 4 days before. was not impressed with this as i asked for help and things seemed to be getting done and promises made but nothing ever really came of it. I liked being in a different group as most of us did put the effort in and finished the work earlier than expected. But i have to say I do agree with Angela, group work is good for formative but not for summative assessment as some people just didn't make any effort with this task at all Mel Yeoman: I agree with Angela & Karina group work is very frustrating when there are clearly group members who are willing to put in the effort and work and then other members who could clearly not care one bit and hope for the other members to carry them. I understand why we are asked to do group work but think it should be based on formative assessment rather than summative, as group work does not give an indication to an individual's performance, and from past experiences of group work it actually gives you lower grades then you would achieve should you have done the work alone. From a personal perspective group work does give you the opportunity to work with individuals you would not normally work with and this is probably the reason why you do this, however we are all adults, with the vast majority of us having good interpersonal skills who are having to constantly work with people who we do not know on a daily basis throughout our placement and on that basis I feel that is more   References Corey, M.S., 2008. Groups: Process and practice. London: Cengage Learning. Northen, H., 2001. Social work with groups. Columbia University Press. Toseland, R., 2008. An introduction to group work practice. London: Allyn & Bacon, Inc. Read More