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Group projects are challenging enough without last-minute changes. And yet, sometimes that happens and you just have to deal with it.

Or do you?

In this case, a student decided she couldn’t handle the pressure and just quit.

She spent weeks preparing for a group presentation. They organized notes, planned sections, only for one teammate to drop out days before the presentation and another to completely restructure the slides at the last minute.

Read the full story below and see what happened and what people had to say.

AITA for not attending a group presentation because of anxiety?

I am a university student and had a group presentation with two other students.

The topic was assigned about a month in advance. I struggle with severe anxiety during presentations, so I started preparing early.

I created notes immediately and shared them with my group.

There wasn’t much input from the others, so I took responsibility for the introduction since I usually get more anxious as presentations go on. I fully prepared that part, including structure and content.

She did a lot of the work.

We agreed to split the presentation into three parts: introduction, analysis, and conclusion. One member agreed to do the conclusion.

The other initially asked for the introduction, which confused me since I had already prepared it.

I’m also a people-pleaser, so I eventually let them take it.

However, they only added 2–3 bullet points and mostly reused my original work without significantly changing or developing it further.

That left me with the analysis, which I also prepared and shared.

She felt more pressured.

About four days before the presentation, one group member said they were in the hospital and could not attend. They still offered to reformat and “improve” the slides.

After that, I became very anxious because the presentation was supposed to last around 40 minutes, and I struggle with long speaking parts and experience anxiety symptoms.

I tried to reassure myself by thinking I already knew most of my part and would just need to practice a bit more.

Two days before the presentation, we received a “final” version of the slides. However, it was completely different from what we had agreed on.

Things kept escalating and she wasn’t having it.

The structure changed, important images were missing, new slides were added to my section, and overall it no longer matched my preparation although the content was mostly taken from my original notes.

I felt overwhelmed and started having panic-like symptoms every time I tried to rehearse. I didn’t feel like I had enough time to relearn everything.

Because of this, I told my group I would not be able to attend. The remaining group member is also upset with me.

I also emailed the professor asking if the presentation could be postponed, but that was not possible.

Now I feel guilty because my remaining group member had to present alone, even though I contributed a lot of the preparation.

AITA?

Leaving one group member to present it alone was super lame. What did Reddit think?

Someone shares their opinion.

An insider scoop.

This person agrees.

Something to consider.

I like this take.

Basically, she invested a significant amount of time into researching and preparing the material, but unexpected changes disrupted the routine she had relied on, which caused her anxiety.

She even tried dealing with it, but felt really overwhelmed and taken by surprise, so she just… didn’t go.

It’s also important to consider that it was a group project, and as annoying as those are, the goal is to do it together.

In my opinion, challenges like this are what can make someone grow and level up if they overcome them. This feels like a lost concept nowadays, doesn’t it?