The Undergraduate and the Passive-Aggressive

I used to love Fridays. Like a lot of other people in the working or student world, T.G.I.F. was my battlecry. WAS. Now I dread the last day of the week.

To explain... I have a class on Convergence Reporting that meets Mondays and Wednesdays. Now that's totally fine. The problem is that part of the demand of this particular class requires that I work with a team of 3 other members, to produce a story every week that should be handed in by Friday at 5 pm. Meeting deadlines is nothing new to me, as I'd been used to cramming to do just that for the past several years in the television station I worked for back in the Philippines (to admit exactly how many years would reveal my age, thus the vagueness in reference to length of tenure). What IS new to me is that I try to meet this deadline with undergraduates; juniors, to be exact. American juniors, to be even more precise. That spells A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E, a personality type I have some trouble with, since I'm more a member of Club Passive-Aggressive.

So each Friday, we'd be scrambling to meet the deadline, trying to come up with a script for radio or TV or a magazine or the Internet, or a combination of these, as demanded by the assignment. As an unusually unassertive person (even back home), it's very stressful for me to deal with these young very aggressive students who always want to have their way, most of whom believe they know best. I am only one of two graduate students in that class, and the other one is a fresh graduate who is also American. A typical Friday would go like this.

Undergrad : Hey we need to write a script for our story.
Me: OK.
Undergrad : OK, I've started on working on it, and here's what I've got. What do you think?
Me: (After gathering up enough guts to actually say something) Well... I think MAYBE you COULD cut up this sentence, since long sentences are discouraged in broadcast. (I was not even trying to sound experienced, our teacher had already told us this in class).
Undergrad: Well, I think this sentence is perfectly fine as is. I don't understand why I'd have to cut this up! It sounds fine! (Throws her hands up in the air and dramatically pushes away from the computer) If you want to cut it, then YOU do it, because I'm not going to do it. I just can't! I hate rules! Why does everything have to be done a certain way! (Rolls her eyes at me as if I'm just a stupid blind rule-follower)
Me: (placating and ready to turn tail) Well, I don't really feel that strongly about it. Leave the sentence as it is, it's fine. (my thought bubble: Girl, you'll be eaten alive in the real world. Try telling that to your future editor)

This has been pretty much the weekly Friday routine, and it is difficult to explain exactly how and why these situations stress me out. So... I've decided to give up. I'm quitting the Convergence sequence next semeseter. I know I am weak... I buckled under the glare of the Undergraduate. But I also know that retreat is sometimes the best (and only) weapon of the Passive-Aggressive, when it is actually an option. Well, I do have a choice. I don't HAVE to quietly steam when a 19-year-old orders me around, and I don't want to engage in power struggles with people who think that the Philippines is somewhere in Latin America. Except for a couple of pretty cool classmates, I'm not going to miss them at all. Maybe next semester I'll have my Fridays back. Then I can celebrate by having a beer somewhere where my classmates can't get in unless they flash a fake ID.