Gel'n

I had no idea what “Information Behavior” or “Information Grounds” meant when I came to class today. I had a flash of panic when the professor began speaking what seemed like a foreign language. She was speaking Library. My eyes began to roll back and my mind began to zone out, and I thought, “What have I gotten myself into? Do I really care about this stuff?” Then I decided to just listen and take it all in. Pretty soon I was finding the content both interesting and understandable. Before I knew it, we were having fun doing interactive exercises that gave meaning to the lecture content.

Eventually the entire class of eighty students was to be broken down into groups of four. These groups will work and do projects together throughout the entire quarter. Needless to say, there is much at stake in regards to one’s overall class experience this quarter based on how cohesive and compatible the team members are with each other. Now I was getting nervous again. I was hoping to team up with a gal I made friends with the first day. But, when the sign up sheets were put out on the table, I couldn’t find her to invite her to do so. By the time I did find her she had already signed up with three other people. Now I was in the hands of Random. I hoped Random would do right by me.

Because most of us don't know each other yet, most of us signed up on sheets of paper without any idea who were the other names on the list. It wasn’t until the last forty-five minutes of class that we finally were asked to get together in our groups. When I see who I’m with, I immediately have a bad feeling about it. I can’t explain it, I just feel it isn’t going to be good match for me. I am not at all happy with Random. But wait, there happens to be another team gathering at our same table. They only have three members on their list – room for one more. I like whom I see. I’m getting a good vibe. I make a quick decision to unassign myself from my group and to reassign myself to the other group. I’m in! Sweet!

What a great move it turned out to be. Three of us are of the chronologically mature contingency. Perhaps that was part of the attraction to me, I don’t know. There is a guy in the mix, and given that the ratio seems to be about eight females to one male, there was a good chance for the group to be all women. Perhaps having the diversity of mixed genders was another attraction to me. As we got to know each other a little bit, and began to brainstorm on how to accomplish our assignment, we fit well together. The way we went out and actually tackled our first assignment, proved it. I think we’ve got a great team. We’re gel’n and I’m excited about that!