Winter Vacation: Analyzing the Dynamics of a Successful Group

                                I was blessed with having the opportunity to spend an entire month on the road travelling with four excellent companions.  Our group was made up of five Americans in total with each person already possessing an extensive traveling resume in their lifetime.  Our group even shared deeper levels of connection though, since all of us were at the time teaching English in China.  These contributing factors helped us to further our greater senses of group identity.

 

                                As I was a late arrival to the group; I had previously been planning a separate trip with another workmate which ended up falling through at the last minute, I was not especially pleased with the itinerary going into the trip.  Obviously, different people are going to have conflicting opinions on what exactly is an "ideal" vacation in their own minds.  Since attempting to conflate the two itineraries would have been pointless and caused a lot of unnecessary sturm un drang within the group I decided to only try and push for one digression from their original plan.

 

                                With that being said, I was lucky in the fact that the group was pretty flexible in nature and found enjoyment easy enough in almost all of experiences that arose while traveling.  Obviously, groups are always going to be tested whenever they share a close proximal distance over a long duration of time.  Contrary to what many of my closest friends back home may have assumed of me growing up I think that by nature I tend to recoil against any attempt at group collusion when I am in the minority; nevertheless, I still find myself acquiescing in the face of a unanimous group decision.  Fortunately for me our group did not experience too many parsimonious situations or tightly contested split decisions during the trip.  Whenever such a debate did occur the group usually decided to split up for that day, which in the end promoted the best possible outcome for both interested parties. 

 

                                During this trip I was able to recognize several important lessons regarding my conduct in groups.  First, I learned that it was never wise to withhold your true feelings regarding something important.  When I looked back on my life I was surprised to discover ubiquitous examples of times when I attempted to ameliorate situations by limiting my own personal goals.   Only recently have I learned that feigning false affectations aimed at receiving the approbations of others is not the right path to take in life.  Only by truthfully answering others will I be able to remove the bounds that shackled my true self.  The true self yearns to live without boundaries in life and finds contentment only in knowing that it is unrestricted in expression.

 

                                Another point important contributing factor to the overall balance of the group was the cohesiveness of my four compatriots.  Two of the teachers had been friends since grade school whereas a third friendship was forged in college with another colleague.  The one and only female in the group was the boyfriend of one of the formerly mentioned colleagues which rounded out our entourage.  This reality left me clearly as the only group member without a closer group distinction prior to my first semester teaching in China.  Since I was clearly the odd man out in this equation it was in my best interest to maintain a neutral or in the most extreme slightly dissenting opinion when called upon.  

 

                                Luckily, as I previously stated earlier the group was in spite of these aforementioned links and congruities able to happily accept me as a fifth member of their unit.