Room 203A

Minerva University

SS51: Complex Systems

Prof. Robbins

April 13, 2022

 Room 203A

A letter

Disclaimer, all of the events in the story are true except those clouded by my emotional and

memory biases. All the names are fictitious to preserve the agents’ identities.

Dear Eloise, Marlene, and Adriana,

I thought I was over it. That is why I am writing you this letter. Spoil alert, I am not over

it. But as the semester is about to end, I don’t want to remember Seoul as the place I lost my

friends.

I am using this assignment as an excuse to reflect on my actions over the past month.

So let me retell you the past events through my interpretive lens.

Wednesday. You, Eloise, tested positive for Covid-19. I went and bought ten covid tests

(R.I.P. my wallet). The rest of us would quarantine; it would be my fourth quarantine. Two more

days. Out on Saturday.

Everything was fine.

Except when it wasn’t.

I started feeling too tired on Sunday. Marlene, you too were feeling unwell. I remember

the night you came back to the room sick. We didn’t know what to do. You seemed to have a

fever. Adriana, you were feeling better but still coughing.

Unlike you, I decided to get tested again. Positive.

 It was set in stone: I was in quarantine. But you went to Quinquatria and Jeju for the next

few days. I was imprisoned in a small room. You were irresponsible. You didn’t even bother

asking how I was. You just wanted to have fun.

But you had Covid too.

Now that four weeks have gone by, I will admit. I am still hurt. My relationship with you

all is still strained. I feel betrayed and cheated on; I thought we were a team.

You say you didn’t know how to react. But that is not true. When Eloise got tested

positive, we were all there for her. We all helped her. Marlene, you even hold her hand. Why did

you all have to mistreat me?

Sincerely,

Gio

Giovanna lacks emotional intelligence (or maturity, for that matter)

Yes, yes. Let me admit. I am self-aware enough to say I don’t have emotional

intelligence. I was jealous, hurt, betrayed, and infantile. I, too, wanted to go to Jeju. I, too,

wanted to go to Quinquatria. I, too, wanted to enjoy my break. I, too, wanted freedom.

But as I rationalized my decision, I knew I was right.

The worst thing, or perhaps the best thing, is that I would do it all again. I would get

tested again. Because I know in my core I should have done that. I wouldn’t have been myself if

I didn’t do what I thought was right. I want to lead by example. I want to be the leader that

people know will do the right thing to do to protect her people.1

1 #responsibilty: It is the moral thing to do: get tested because you don’t want other people to get sick. By
Minerva’s policies, I did not have to get tested after my quarantine ended. I knew I had to get tested because I was
not feeling well. I want people to be socially responsible, I should lead by example. I would be a hypocrite if I did
not do the right thing to do. I want to be a responsible leader, friend, and roommate.
Advice I won’t follow

To be completely honest again, I will not follow the advice I am about to give. I would

say I should see the situation from a different angle. Get over it. “You are not responsible for

how people behave”.

Yet my current actions do not match what I know I am supposed to do. I am supposed to

forgive them. I just can’t forget. And the snowball gets bigger and bigger as time goes by. Every

small action pains me and increases my grudge.

I chose this topic for this assignment because I wanted to put an end to this snowball, to

end for good this loop. Figure 1 is a diagram of our roommate’s dynamics.
 Figure 1. Causes behind the tension and hatred between the roommates

Note: The hurt ego/feelings started halfway filled because my feelings were hurt even before the

miscommunication. We did not have fruitful conversations, so the “lack of communication”

bubble is also filled.

The many reinforcing loops exemplify how a simple increase in lack of communication

increases hatred. My favorite loop is between hurt feelings, unwillingness to compromise, lack of

communication, minor conflicts, and hate. This is the main loop where almost every bubble is

connected. The more our feelings are hurt, the more we will be unwilling to listen to the other

side or communicate properly. The tension increases2. The problem is not that I am not self-
2 #complexcausality: not only did I explain the different feedback loops, but I also explained how I would break
the cycle but targeting lack of communication and self-awareness. The diagram shows that, because self-awareness,
is not connected to most of the agents, it is a good starting point. I will then ask myself: why do I feel the way I feel?
Why are my feelings hurt? In this case, I don’t like to be excluded from the group and considered unimportant. A
link to the diagram can be found here. Due word count constraints, I was not able to explain all of the loops nor their
effects.
aware, I just don’t know how to process my feelings nor communicate them with those that hurt

me.

This assingment is me improving my communication with my roommates so that we

don’t end up hating each other. The four of us are a mini society that has to co-exist. If we want

to live in harmony, we must collaborate and work as a team. Our experience at Minerva has to be

worth it, and not working together will not make our journey any better. However, as a future

leader, I recognize that it is my responsibility to lead by example. If I want to reduce the tensions

between us, then I must be the first one to let go of my ego and communicate. We are all going

to have to find compromise. I will do that by acknowledging my feelings.3

Word count: 792

3 #selfawareness: I know I tend not to follow advice. I am too stubborn. And I also know I tend to ignore my
feelings nor communicate them properly. I used this assignment to process my feelings and the next thing I will do
tonight and is talk with the three of them. Update: I decided to resubmit my assignment after I had a conversation
with them. They were a bit defensive and even though their actions were not intentional, I still feel hurt. We are still
going to cooperate but I can’t let people hurt me anymore. And if they don’t understand, I guess I should move on.