When I was making the master list of 30 things to do before I turned 30, memories of my sisters' Girl Scout badges floated to the surface of my mind, and I thought, "Y'know, I've always thought it would be such fun to be in the Girl Scouts; I bet I would enjoy 'earning' a few badges!"
I also thought, "Earning badges involves doing things like learning to make knots and growing a lima bean into a blooming plant; I bet I could do a few of them pretty easily in six months."
And VOILA! This item was added into my list.
Well...while I still believe I was right in that Girl Scout activities are fun, they involve much more than I had anticipated.
Every single badge (that I could find details on when I looked into starting this item in February) involved completion of six things, such as an interview, a report, an experiment, an experience, a diorama, etc.†
For example, let's say I wanted to get a "space" badge - not only would I need to go to an observatory, I would need to interview an astronaut, go to Kennedy Space Center, create a solar system made up of m&ms, write a paper comparing and contrasting the galaxies in Star Wars and Star Trek, and discover, name, and map a currently unknown volcanic crater on Io (a moon of Jupiter).* All of these things are both fun and hands-on learning experiences, but are a bit time consuming.
And while the Scouts have regularly scheduled events that help the girls get all things completed, as well as "how-to" guides, me by myself found it a little difficult to complete three of them in six months.
Subsequently, this will be one of the items on my list that I did not complete, and do not intend to complete unless it is as a Scout leader helping my girls (if I have them) one day to earn their own. Thus, I am marking this one as "failed" instead of "rolled over" for my next list.
While I did not 'get' any badges, I did earn massive respect for anyone in Girl or Boy Scouts. Not only have they done many varying things, they have learned a lot and have a leg up on their peers in being ready for the business world. I think this world would do better to have more Scouts.
†I am certain not all badges involve all of this, but the ones I found did. And, admittedly, they sounded like a lot of fun. However, doing them would have ended up taking most of the 6 months I had allotted for my list and there were other things I wanted to do.
*This particular badge with these requirements is completely fictitious; any attempt to earn it should not be made. However, I would like to note that I have gone to an observatory, talked with an astronaut, and been to KSC within the past year; I made an atom out of m&ms in middle school; I have gotten into SW/ST comparison discussions multiple times; I at least knew Jupiter had a moon named Io; and I have friends that worked on the space shuttles.**
**Come to think of it, I wish it were a real badge; I would have earned it. Well, except for the mapping of Io. Too much work. Any of my geek friends out there have any ideas for other fun badges? We could have our own club.
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