The Value of Working Toward ‘Cohesion’

As someone who has spent the better half of her life participating in independent activities, I have grown accustomed to working alone. The idea of collaborating with others as part of a team was completely foreign to me, so joining mock trial contrasted vividly with everything I was familiar with. I was surprised when I realized that mock was so much more than just a team—it was a family. Throughout Empire season, I got to witness firsthand the bonds, memories, and inside jokes that we created. Though the team was much smaller and the workload was heavier than that of State season, the many hours we spent on case prep seemed to breeze by. I was perfectly happy just to focus on my own material without worrying much about that of my teammates. This was fine at the time; our team was small enough that communicating and integrating various concepts of our content seemed fairly simple. In retrospect, I most definitely took that for granted.
 
The transition into State season felt jarring in comparison—all of a sudden, I became a captain, and our team doubled in size. I felt unprepared, underqualified, and undeserving of the responsibility that I’d been handed. I did my best to help my teammates whenever I could, but it soon became evident that something just wasn’t clicking. After months of scouring our case packets for some tiny detail we might have missed, updating our content, then going to tournaments and repeating the whole process over again, we realized what certain teams had that we lacked: cohesion. It took a while for us to understand but competing against other schools was a real eye opener. We saw how seamlessly the best teams in the state possessed a certain continuity in their content, from things as broad as case theory and themes to small idiosyncrasies like hand gestures and diction. To us, this was a game changer. We poured all our effort towards achieving what other teams had been doing since the beginning, a feat much more difficult than I had previously anticipated. The process involved a lot of discussion amongst us, and a lot of reviewing of our material for inconsistencies and outliers.  It was during that time that I began to truly comprehend the value of communication and the true difference that cohesion creates.
 
I was heartbroken when State was cancelled due to COVID-19, more so for my now-graduated senior friends than for myself. Throughout the season, they have been nothing but understanding and supportive, and they taught me to be a better ‘mocker.’ Although the team will be undeniably different without them, I still look forward to my next two years as a part of this incredible organization. It’s been proven to me time and time again that great things are accomplished together, not separately, and I’ll always cherish the time I have spent with my teammates, with whom I’ve learned how to communicate and cooperate. Heading into the next school year, I have no doubt that the lessons I learned through mock trial will be indispensable, both in mock courtrooms and in the real world.