Most Georgia colleges have completed their spring commencement exercises, with high schools
set to award diplomas to new graduates over the next couple of weeks. It’s a great time of year
to both celebrate the achievements earned, while looking forward to new opportunities and
challenges ahead.
For those who have just finished college, hopefully you are now better prepared for the “real
world” you are about to enter. Spoiler alert: It’s not that much more real than the everyday
problems, obstacles, relationships, and stresses you’ve been dealing with throughout your
adolescence and young adult lives. It’s just the situations are going to change, with the stakes
and often the consequences – good and bad – are about to increase.
There was one part of college that introduced me into real-life expectations more than most,
and that was the infamous “group project”. I’m sure we had one or two along the way in high
school, but in college, there were several that made up much of a course’s work and grade.
Thus, the stakes and consequences of a class were no longer based on my own studying or
recall, but on the cumulative work of others.
By now most of us are familiar with how this too often works. Or should we say “works”?
Because there always seems to be at least one group member that is willing to test the college
version of the prisoners’ dilemma. One person who refuses to do their work will generally be
covered by the others, but if everyone refuses to do the work, everyone fails.
Some people unfortunately used this collegiate experience to learn that you can get by in life
with showing up when convenient, talking a good game, disappearing for the hard parts, but
reemerging again when it’s time to split the rewards. Graduates should understand they’re not
leaving these folks behind in college. In fact, they’ll experience them throughout their lives.
We all want to believe that they’ll eventually get what they deserve, but that often is not…
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