When I was in elementary and middle school, I was a Girl Scout. I loved it. I felt like I was doing something wonderful and worthwhile, and enjoyed making good friends with the girls who were my scouting sisters. Until I had a horrible troop leader, whose daughter compounded the problem by bullying me. But that's not what this is about. I really did love scouting, and I think that it helped me become a better person. I wonder if my mom still has my sash and vest? I even had a little beanie cap and used to love wearing my uniform because it felt good. I just felt like I was part of something bigger that was really important.
And now, Juliana is a Brownie Scout. This is her first year, and so far she's really enjoying it. We have meetings every other Thursday evening, and so far the girls are learning the Girl Scout Promise and a few scout songs. I set up a blog for our troop to help me keep track of our activities and things I want to do with the girls. Oh, yes, and I'm the troop leader. Let me just say HOLY CRAP it's really involved and detailed and time consuming to be a troop leader. I have had to set up my troop (13 girls, but just dropped to 12) from scratch because every single girl in the troop is a first-year scout, and they're all from different schools around town. That not only means organizing and running the meetings, but planning them too from scratch. I also have to keep track of registrations and medical information and donations and fund raisers and field trip organization and permission slips and Girl Scout Council and Town activities and any other paperwork there is supposed to be. I have to get myself certified by Red Cross soon, too.
Since the GS Council just realigned on October 1st we've been waiting for the new TIN's because being a first-year troop, we not only have no budget to speak of, but we don't have a single dime. I have to even set up a special bank account for the troop for supplies, badges, and other troop expenses. It's crazy! I think if I'd known it would be so involved, I would've settled for being an assistant leader or something, but this troop really needed a leader. No one else wanted to take on the responsibility. Because it was so important to Juliana, I felt I had to do it. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do it, but it's a lot more than I bargained for. I can't take the two little ones with me, because I can't keep an eye on them while I'm trying to do things with the troop. The girls in the troop are wonderful, but I do have to work to keep their attention for most of the hour that I have them. Thankfully, so far Manny has been able to stay home with them, but it may get to where he has to ditch me for work since his hours have been cut and we need those hours. I'm also officially registered as an adult Girl Scout, which feels good. I know that this is good for the girls, and it's good for me. It opens up a lot of opportunities for me to interact with other adults and sharpen my skills, which will probably help when it's time for me to get back into the work force. Ooh, I just realized that I can put this on my resume! Woo haw! ***skips off to update resume***
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