My Room 101 has so many pet hates, that I’ve had to put up shelves and add letters to help navigate each item:
Under Y, you will find – YouTube videos in restaurants.
M– Men Sneezing loudly.
S – Slow Walkers.
And under T is Teams.
The few times I’ve had to say I was a ‘team player’, I was lying. Teams have never been my thing. I much prefer to do things alone. I lasted 3 weeks at Rainbows, then I had to do a paper chain with the other toddlers, and that was me done. My heart would drop at school whenever a teacher told us to “get into groups.” Then, there was the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh, where I almost fell out with my friends in a sunflower field.
The worst kind of team, though, is in sports. Once, I was selected to be the school hockey goalie, and we lost 4-1. After that, I avoided situations where people relied on my skills to score points. (Thank goodness for the yoga trend.)
When I joined my writing course, one thing I didn’t have to worry about was being in a team. I assumed my peers, and I would write happily, alone. However, the course took a sharp turn in the second module, when we had to submit our writing for ‘peer feedback’. The idea was that ‘together’, we could improve each other’s work. The first time I had ten people pick apart my writing, it was embarrassing, like being a hockey goalie all over again. Then, week after week, it felt a bit better, my work improved, and I eventually grew to like the whole ‘single writers alone together’ thing.
In fact, I couldn’t write without other people now. I chewed off my fellow peer’s ear the other night in The White Rabbit. Poor Poetry-Ed*, all he wanted was a few quiet pints, and instead, he had to hear about the characters I had made up in my head and what I was going to do with them next. He listened, though, and gave me advice, and in turn, my chapter improved.
It may be a stretch to call it ‘teamwork’, but a fresh pair of eyes is a gift on this solitary path.
*Poetry Ed- writes poetry, rides a bike, and has adopted a misogynistic cat called Jaffa. His poem, ‘Grey-Blue’, is in Lighthouse Issue 24. Follow on twitter @roffeed
THE QUACK 