I have only experienced difficulty adjourning from a group which I was involved on one occasion. Growing up and through undergrad I played sports year round. The main sport that I excelled in was fast pitch softball. Adjourning from my team at the end of each season was a bit tough. When I was younger, the emotions related to adjourning were not as intense as when I grew older. This is likely because when I played sports at a young age I had other sports to look forward to, and often I had the same teammates from one sport to the next.
At an older age playing in college, the last game of my senior year was challenging. This is because I was aware of the end of my athletic journey as well as the camaraderie that I had formed with my teammates over the previous four years of my experience. Each season our team set out to accomplish the same goals, to win our division and our conference. We all had sight of this goal and learned to work together in attempt to achieve it. Along the way there was much adversity to overcome such as injuries, competition within the team, or individual conflicts amongst teammates, but we depended on each other for success. So ultimately if we wanted to achieve our goals we had to work out our struggles to the best of our ability.
Despite the internal challenges that my teammates and I faced, it was difficult to let go of the relationships that I had built as well as the feeling of belonging that I had with particular group of people. We all shared the same passion for this particular sport and worked equally as hard to reach a desired outcome. I do believe high performance groups in this sense are not easy to walk away from.
What I did appreciate about the adjournment period was the acknowledgement of each participant of the team at the end of their senior year. This along with the memorabilia left us with something to hold on to from the group and share with others.
It is important to have closure to finalize an experience, including in this master’s program. I believe that we have come to know each other through discussion and blog pots and hopefully can attend the graduation ceremony together at the end of the program.
Leon'e,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your experiences of adjourning. Adjourning can be difficult for many especially as in your case. However, the rituals you had are memories that would remain with you for a long time. We can summarize our bitter/sweet times and sense of accomplishments with big laughs or with tears as part of our adjourning because that is what adjourning is all about; reflecting on accomplishments and failures (O'Hair, & Wiemann, 2009).
Resources
O'Hair, & Wiemann, (2009). Real Communication: An Introduction. Bedford/ St. Martin's
Leon'e,
ReplyDeleteI hope we all do get to meet at graduation. It will be a unique experience to adjourn with each other and see each other in person. It reminds me of the exercise we had when we had to guess characteristics of a person by looking at a picture. I like to think I know all of you a little bit by the way you perceive and deliver assignments, and how you respond, but it will be interesting to actually see your personalities in person.
Leone,
ReplyDeleteClosure is important and how it occurs is significant because it connotes that we are culminating an experience whether it by mutual agreement or by force; we have arrived at the end regardless of the experiences which would have impacted on us thus equipping us for other encounters that are waiting in the wings. I am grateful for the discussion and blogs which would have provided opportunities to connect with each other and hopefully make that face to face connection at gradation. Thanks for sharing!
I think you are right in that sports teams are a special group that is challenging to adjourn from, especially that last year in high school. You have had the chance to play with some of your teammates for many years and you can't get that in college level, if you even play again.
ReplyDeleteI plan on making graduation. As soon as I find out when and where I will make arrangements.
I did not think about adjourning from different sports groups. This is a great example in which you work hard to achieve success and then at the end of the season there is an adjourning phase. I played sports all through school and it was always sad when the season ended. Luckily, many of the girls on my teams were also my close friends and classmates. Great post and thanks for reminding me of these special groups!
ReplyDeleteI also found it hard to leave my volleyball team during my undergrad studies. It was additionally hard because only after two seasons I had to leave the team, I watched my friends finish out the rest of the next two years. To this day many of the girls that I played with over those two years keep in touch on Social media cites. I have reconnected with so many from high school and college thanks to Facebook and MySpace.
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