Day 3: The Group Project Lottery

“Day three of the semester and it happened—the dreaded group project assignment.

I walked into my Organizational Behavior lecture, hoping for a chill session where I could sit in the back and zone out. Instead, Professor Lim announced with a wide grin, ‘Today, we’ll be forming groups for your semester-long project!’ The groans that followed were louder than my alarm this morning.

The project itself didn’t sound too bad—analyzing a company’s organizational structure and presenting solutions to hypothetical problems. The catch? We didn’t get to pick our teams. Professor Lim had a list and randomly assigned us.

‘Group 7,’ she called out. ‘Eddie, Faisal, Sara, and Muthu.’

Oh no.

Faisal, the guy who once admitted he didn’t know how to attach a file to an email. Sara, the overachiever who’ll probably make a color-coded schedule for every task. And Muthu… well, I didn’t know much about him except that he always looked half-asleep in lectures. This was my team.

After class, we gathered in a corner to introduce ourselves. Sara immediately took charge. ‘Okay, we need to assign roles and set deadlines. I suggest we meet twice a week and use Google Sheets to track our progress.’ Faisal nodded enthusiastically, probably because he didn’t want to volunteer for anything.

‘What company should we choose?’ Muthu asked, yawning halfway through his sentence.

‘How about a mamak stall?’ Faisal suggested. ‘Everyone loves mamak.’

Sara shot him a look. ‘We need something more professional.’

‘Like what?’ I asked, trying to sound engaged.

‘Maybe a local startup? Or a logistics company?’ Sara replied, already jotting down ideas.

Faisal shrugged. ‘I still think mamak is cool. They’ve got systems too, you know—like the way they keep track of orders without writing them down. Genius.’

Sara sighed. ‘We’ll decide later. Let’s exchange numbers and set up a WhatsApp group.’

By the time we wrapped up, I could already tell how this was going to go. Sara would do most of the work, Faisal would show up with last-minute ideas, Muthu would quietly agree to everything, and I’d be stuck trying to keep everyone happy. Classic group dynamics.

The rest of the day felt like a blur. I sat through a dry lecture on Business Statistics, took terrible notes, and bumped into my crush again—this time spilling her drink instead of my tray. She just laughed and said, ‘You’re really making a habit of this, huh?’ I mumbled an apology and tried not to turn red.

By the time I got back to my dorm, my phone buzzed with a message from Sara: ‘Group 7 chat created. First meeting tomorrow. Don’t be late.’ I sighed, already dreading the chaos to come.

Lesson of the day: Group projects are like arranged marriages—you don’t get to choose, but you have to make it work.”