Ismene: “But think of the danger! Think what Creon will do!”
Antigone: “Creon is not enough to stand in my way.”

These few lines express the nature of my thoughts and core being – who I am. There is little that can stop me if I am up to a task and willing to try, whether it be in individual or group work.

When I was junior in high school, my friends and I (a total of six people) decided to present a play during the school talent show. We were all very creative and bright individuals. I guess we could hardly be characterized as the typical twenty-first century kids, immersed in television and technologies. On the contrary, we were constantly communicating, doing sports, and taking part in extracurricular projects. While jokingly, I could say that we represented the sort of high school students who are now becoming extinct due teenagers’ increasing immersion in social media and technology.

For our play, we chose to do Sophocles’ “Antigone”, a typical Greek tragedy where flaws of character lead to irreversible consequences and numerous deaths. One of the reasons why we decided to do this play is because at the moment we were studying Greek mythology in one of our literature classes. While the teacher said that this play could be assessed as part of the class grade, we were motivated to do the play because we enjoyed acting and regularly took part in drama plays (extracurricular and in class). Hence, creating a play of our own presented an interesting challenge for each of us.

However, what none of us knew is that it would not be a conflict-free task. Since all of us are outgoing, energetic individuals, I could say mostly extraverted, it turned out that we each wanted to lead the process. Since the project was our own initiative, we had to take care of the organizational process ourselves without a teacher or instructor to guide us. Today, looking back at this experience, I can see that getting started and finding consensus was the most difficult task of all. The matter is, we each had our own vision of how the play should look like; the costumes, the decorations, basically everything. To my great disappointment, I must admit that on one occasion we were very close to calling it off, since the conflict was getting somewhat out of hand. I guess this is what happens when you have six extraverted perfectionists working together.

Yet I am proud to say that at a certain point we managed to find agreement. Actually, when we were one step away from cancelling our initiative, I suggested that we assign one aspect of the play (decoration, costumes, text, etc.) to each individual. The idea was for us to meet up in several days and give each other fifteen minutes free of any sort of interruption for presenting the idea. After these presentations, we discussed all questions and concerns, distributed the roles, and managed to find a consensus. I am proud to say that, in the end, we did a beautiful job and following the performance numerous people from the audience came up to say that the play was of very high quality.

Over time, I have realized that the process of working with others (as a group or a team) aids me in discovering the different aspects of my character which previously remained latent. While individual work is something I greatly enjoy, I still consider teamwork much more effective in terms of the outcomes that it reaps. Yet when you have a group of leaders working together, it is never easy. As a matter of fact, John Hopkins attracts many strong leaders who must learn to work together in order to succeed. My past experience has taught me that the challenge lies in putting aside one’s self-righteousness and being willing to integrate others’ ideas with one’s own.