Personal Narrative Essay

“Shut up, I got this!” he exclaimed. Liam, a pseudonym for the boy’s actual name, continued to yell and get angry. Liam was my partner for my first ever Team Building Tuesday (TBT) activity in my leadership class. The sole purpose of Team Building Tuesday was to help develop our interpersonal skills. The activity was called blind drawing. Liam and I volunteered to go first. To complete the activity, I would be taking directions from Liam to depict a certain image. Therefore, the image was shown only to him.
“Do this.” He showed me a hand gesture of a solid line. I drew a straight line. He then said, “No you’re wrong!” We moved on. I drew a triangle, then a square. Liam again shouted, “No you’re wrong! Fix it!” No matter what I drew and how many times I did it, everything I did always seemed to be incorrect. I didn’t understand what I was doing wrong, I was following Liam’s directions. I grew impatient each time a new direction was given. Was the whole purpose of Liam’s comments to irritate me? I did not have time for this today! I was already feeling uneasy about the activity; therefore, I was not ready for any added conflict. Liam’s directions were ambiguous. There were no details to help guide me to

However, my partner and I continued to argue. The frustration soon became mutual and we were not able to complete the task at hand. Although I came in with a mindset of success, I realized the combination of my emotions and conflict with my partner, had ultimately caused us to fail in the end. Our poor communication had left us at a standstill. Our failure resulted in me feeling disappointed and confused. Why weren’t we able to work together? My leadership teacher, Mrs. Petersohn, told me in the beginning of the year that in order for communication to be effective one must have a common focus, especially in a partner or group