The Kids are not alright

Being around younger students on campus creates a clear line that says I am much older than they are and more mature.

Fine, but must I start to sound like their mothers?

Case in point:

My Environmental Science lab presentation.
(Grade update: A)

My lab group consisted of me and two other students: one 22 yr old and one 20 yr old. We were all tasked with gathering our own research that we would then compile in a PowerPoint presentation.

When we met on campus, we found out that the 20 yr old had not done her research. She also did not call us and let us know this so that we could have taken up the slack. So, she has shown up with nothing and during the time she is with us she still has nothing to contribute. We suggested that she go use a computer terminal somewhere else in the library and do her research and she refused.

We tasked her with coming up with answers for our presentation's conclusion while we work on other things. I could tell there was nothing cycling through her brain so I drafted some things, just in case. After waiting to see if she would come up with something, we went ahead and put my pieces in. She had the nerve to be upset that we were doing it all without her. The girl had NO awareness of the fact that she had done wrong and should be working her butt off now making up for lost time or at least keeping her mouth shut. As it ended up, everything that she was supposed to supply to our presentation was done by me.

She was there less than two hours and had to leave to go to work. The 22 year old asked her to call into work and finish this with us. She refused, supposedly on the grounds that she was too responsible. By this point I just wanted her to leave, there was nothing she could give us and her presence was an irritant. The other student and I ended up working 10 more hours on the presentation.

Part of me wishes I had pulled her aside and let her have it, let her know this wasn't the way to go about school or life. However, another part of me just did not care. Especially since it was clear that she didn't.