Most times, I like to sit back, observe, and learn from people so when I was announced as the group leader for a seminar presentation during my second year at the university, my jaw dropped and my eyes widened. My hands automatically flew to rest on my head, and my heartbeat slowed and doubled in pace.
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"Please sir I don't want to lead the group," I said with my voice reduced to its lowest, my lips turned downwards and my eyes enlarged while I blinked rapidly. The course lecturer raised a side of his lips and rubbed at his beard as if considering my plea.
"You're leading the group Treasure," he said after his supposed rumination.
"And that is final" he added when my mouth dropped open again in protest.
Accepting my fate, I fixed a meeting with the members of my group where an unanimous agreement was made to create a WhatsApp group for information circulation.
I had spent time turning the thoughts of how we could work effectively as a group over in my head, picturing episodes of our project, and had come to a conclusion that every one of us would read a chapter of the recommended text which we were to use as a reference point for the seminar.
I was shocked to turn on my data after dropping my thoughts which I had converted into a message on the group chat and have my notification sound ring almost endlessly. I traced the messages and when I saw they were from the group I had created, an alarm shot up in my system immediately, I clicked on the group chat and scrolled through the messages.
"Please group leader, we all cannot read that material it's too bulky. How about we get the synopsis of the book and get acquainted with it?" There was a female emoji with its hands raised beside the message. I chuckled and moved to the next one;
"I don't understand why we have to read just one chapter of the book. We all should read the book to have overall knowledge so that we avoid surprises from the lecturer".
I kept scrolling intently through the messages, reading the various opinions. It was like someone turned on a generator in my head because the argument was getting too much. At some point, I squeezed my eyes and rubbed my head dramatically.
I honestly didn't know which opinion to go with in order not to seem partial so I resisted the urge to respond to certain of the messages. Instead, I replied to the message that read;
"Where is the group leader and why is she silent after causing this much commotion here?" telling everyone to calm down as their suggestions had been duly noted.
I sat down to compose a message for one of my coursemates who was the group leader for another group, asking for advice but the guy was equally confused as his group members had not even responded to the message he had dropped for them.
Later that evening, I picked up my phone again after pacing the house and picking at my dinner of spaghetti then read through the messages, ensuring I understood all suggestions before replying on the group chat. I kept going back to check if the notifications I was receiving were messages from the group but there was no response until the next morning.
I had insisted that each person should read a chapter of the recommended text and get ready to present it as their seminar because the majority of the group members had agreed to the suggestion but when others who had not consented saw the final decision, there was so much dissension that many of them spent time they should have used preparing for the seminar to throw tantrums then ended up presenting poorly.
The next time I found myself in a group for our makeup practical that same semester, I was thankful that I wasn't appointed to lead. We were asked to pick a character of our choice and replicate it using makeup. Our group leader asked each of us to drop a picture of a character makeup on the group that was created for that purpose and after we converged for the next meeting, the group was stuck trying to choose between two particular characters.
"How about we do both of them?" One of us pushed her glasses up her nose and gave a half smile. My leader loved the idea.
Instead of parading one character like the other groups, we had two characters on parade. The rest of the class had sneers for us, some people even openly said we had overdone our project but when the lecturer came around for scoring, she had a satisfied smile in place and ended up commending our group for the extra effort.
