Day 15: Group Project Beginnings

The announcement hit like a bolt of lightning in the middle of class. “Your group project topics will be assigned today,” Mrs. Leong said, her tone suggesting she was about to drop a grenade into our relatively peaceful academic lives.

Group projects. The phrase alone made my stomach churn. Nothing quite combines the chaos of personalities, uneven workloads, and academic desperation like a mandatory group project.

The instructions were clear—or as clear as they could be, coming from Mrs. Leong. Each group was to analyze the supply and demand dynamics of a specific industry and present their findings in four weeks. The catch? She’d already assigned the groups.

“Your groups are listed on the board,” she announced, gesturing to a PowerPoint slide filled with names.

The room immediately erupted into groans, whispers, and nervous laughter. I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture of the list. My group consisted of me, Faisal, Amanda (oh no, oh yes), Zara (the class’s unofficial perfectionist), and Hafiz (a quiet guy who always sat in the back row).

I glanced over at Amanda, who was already flipping through her notebook with an air of calm efficiency. Zara looked like she was mentally rearranging her schedule to accommodate this new task. Faisal, meanwhile, whispered something to Hafiz that made him smirk.

**********

We gathered after class to figure out a meeting schedule. Zara took charge almost immediately, whipping out her planner.

“We should meet at least twice a week,” she declared, her pen flying across the page. “Weekends are non-negotiable.”

Faisal groaned. “Weekends? But that’s my recovery time.”

“Recovery from what?” Zara shot back. “Procrastination?”

Amanda hid a smile, while Hafiz chuckled quietly. I felt like I was caught in the middle of a reality show.

After ten minutes of negotiating, we settled on meeting Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Our industry assignment: the fast-food sector.

“Should be easy enough,” Amanda said. “It’s a familiar industry, and there’s plenty of data available.”

“Fast food?” Faisal grinned. “Does this mean I get to eat burgers for research?”

Zara rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck.

**********

Later that evening, we had our first group chat. Zara, unsurprisingly, was the first to post.

Zara: “Hi, everyone! Just to confirm, we’re meeting at 7 PM in the library on Wednesday. Please bring any initial ideas or data you can find.”

Faisal: “Can I bring McDonald’s instead of data?”

Zara: “No. Please be serious.”

Amanda: “I think it’s a good idea to look at customer trends and marketing strategies.”

Me: “I can check out pricing comparisons between different brands. Maybe how they respond to price changes?”

Hafiz: “I’ll research customer loyalty programs.”

Faisal: “I’ll research menu items… by eating them.”

Zara didn’t even bother replying to that one.

**********

By midnight, the group chat was filled with links, ideas, and Zara’s reminders to “stay on track.” I was torn between dreading our meetings and secretly enjoying the dynamic. Faisal’s sarcasm, Amanda’s quiet leadership, Zara’s intensity—it was shaping up to be an interesting four weeks.

I sat back, scrolling through the chat, and wondered how this project would pan out. Would we rise to the occasion, or would we end up in a Fast Food Frenzy of arguments and chaos?

Lesson of the day: Group projects are like fast food—exciting at first but potentially a recipe for disaster.