Top Ten Reasons it’s Cool to be a Girl Scout
Girl Scout Cookie Time-Come on, you know when those order forms start appearing and the scouts are clustered outside stores, on street corners, and coming by your house/apt your mouth starts watering for those Thin Mints, Tagalongs, and Samoas.- You get to wear a uniform-I don’t know about you, but I’ve always liked wearing a uniform. It saves so much time when you don’t have to stand in front of your closet forever deciding what wear. One of my big tragedies in my younger life was going to public schools that did not require a school uniform.
- You get to learn cool new skills (and “play” with matches)-In Girl Scouts you get to learn the proper way to build a fire (I remember we used a combination of pretzel rods and marshmallows), Orienteering (finding marked trails in the woods), and even do things like horseback riding.
- Going camping-What could be better than roughing it in the great outdoors? You get to hike, sit around a campfire at night, learn to use a compass, sleep in tents or cabins, and sometimes go swimming. I know that we all appreciated a nice hot shower and McDonald’s after a few days in the wilderness! I remember before a family camping trip my sister wanted to know where she could plug in her blow dryer.
- Showing off the patches you earned-In the scouts you can earn patches for completing various tasks such as cooking, first aid, crafts like sewing, and gardening. The Girl Scouts have been keeping up with the times and now have patches in Geocaching, entertainment technology, and digital photography. Once earned, your patches are sewn onto your uniform to be proudly displayed to all. And you know we were checking out the number of patches everyone else had and bragging about the patches we had earned.
- Ceremonies-The Girl Scouts are big on ceremonies. Whenever you moved up a level from Daisies, to Brownies, to Juniors, to Cadettes to Seniors there was a special program usually involving lighting candles, special handshakes, crossing bridges, or symbolically “flying” to the next level of scouting. I am sure the Girl Scout ceremonies were good prep for those who later joined sororities.
- Songs-I don’t think I’ve ever sang songs such as those we learned in Girl Scouts-songs I still remember today. Gems including “Make New Friends,” “I’ve got something in my Pocket,” and “On My Honor.”(obv. the Girl Scout version.)
- Making S’mores-There’s nothing better than sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows and smashing them together w/chocolate and graham crackers for an oozy, delicious snack. Of course you can make them w/a microwave, but the best part about roasting the marshmallows over an open fire is that you can decide the consistency of your marshmallow-rare, golden brown, or Cajun-style (black on the outside.)
- Creating cool crafts-At many a meeting and camping trip you got to make cool crafts. I can remember “beading” scarves, braiding lanyard bracelets, and creating items out of popsicle sticks.
- Feminine empowerment-The Girl Scouts are great promoters of female empowerment. In the end, the scouts are all about promoting independence, learning new skills, and working as a team w/other females.
