There was a lot going on in my mind when we were assigned the IDP project in the middle of my least favorite class with my least favorite teacher overlooking our progress.
I was worried, because in my experience, there's always someone that does the most work, and that person that does the most work somehow always tends to be me. Without exception, I'm used to pulling more than my weight.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case this time. I was assigned four people, two of which I rarely even talk to, and three which were good friends of mine. We exchanged contact information and decided that we'd all meet up at some point to work together on our IDP project as a team. Despite everyone's best attempts, only a week before the IDP presentations and we were horribly unprepared, and had never been able to decide on a day to meet up. To say the truth, I had done my two meager paragraphs for our essay and then called it a day. For whatever reason, there was always a complication for a team member on the days we tried to meet up on, and therefore we never got together to do things right.
Then came the Monday before the presentation, December 8th. Our Powerpoint was still iffy at best, and we were going to have a dress rehearsal the next day. Needless to say, we all felt like we'd hit rock bottom as we sat there the following day, watching the other groups present brilliant powerpoints on their diseases. Knowing that we'd had three weeks to muster up a powerpoint and ours still looked like we did it in the course of an hour, there was no excuse for our lack of preparedness.
Still, we presented that day, and things went surprisingly well. In higher spirits, we took the time to work on our powerpoint (having one person work on it, then email it to the next teammate so they could do their part, and so on) we were nearly perfectly ready for Thursday. I had anxiety over how the real presentation would go, being fully aware that people who have studied, who actually know what our topic is on to a much deeper extent, were the ones who would be judging us.
The day of the official presentation, I had troubles getting to school, and had to rely on my best friend to give me a ride. No parents for moral support, just the notion of the fact that I'd probably be presenting in front of rude, stone-faced know-it-alls. I remember running down the hallway towards my classroom, with only two minutes left to memorize all I needed to say, absolutely, irrevocably terrified, completely oblivious to the fact that my cellphone was ringing with messages from my team members wondering if I was going to show.
When I walked into the classroom, I immediately saw the two Asian women watching us intently and both Ms. Munoz and Mr.Parkhill sitting at a table. Stuttering, my group hesitantly began their presentation, the atmosphere was tense and stiff. Perhaps one of us would trip over a word, then laugh it off nervously and continue, but that was all to be heard.
When it came my turn to present, I blanked out, babbling off about "medical insurance" and "financial aid", things which I knew for a fact if someone asked me to elaborate, I'd break down and say I know nothing about what I'm talking about. The presentation, however, went without a hitch, and the Asian women were surprisingly amiable. I received my paper today saying we got a "4", which is evidently a good thing.
I'm proud, but of my team, not of myself. I don't think the stuttering girl in a black dress and blazer that the judges saw last Thursday really deserved a "4", but I'm not about to ask for an individual grade. Now that would be horrible.
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