Picture young Aspen, about 7 years old, standing outside of the local Vons, sulking. Wearing a bright blue vest, I had been standing for two hours behind a table piled high with unsold boxes of Girl Scout cookies, and, as I frequently told my mother, wanted to leave with every fiber of my being.
At that time, if you had asked me if I wanted to be a Girl Scout or if I thought the organization was in any way valuable, I would have replied with a resounding no.
However, despite the miserable hours standing outside various retail stores, my experiences with Girl Scouts have not always been ones of aching legs and rampant boredom.
With the perspective that comes from getting older and focusing more on my future, I’ve found that Girl Scouts has given me so many more opportunities than I once assumed.
For me, it offered an avenue for adventure; the organization’s many outdoor programs created spaces for girls in subjects where it was either costly or difficult to enter.
Take backpacking as an example. This isn’t something someone wakes up one day and decides to do. It takes knowledge of wilderness safety, backpacking rules and etiquette, and necessitates expensive equipment, to plan and complete a successful backpacking trip.
Through Girl Scouts I was able to rent cheap gear, and take classes to learn the basics. Without these resources, I never would have found out how much I like the outdoors and camping and never would have gone on incredible trips whose memories I will treasure for the rest of my life.
Another aspect of Girl Scouts I under-appreciated when I was younger was the community it built. A part of the Girl Scout Promise — a pledge frequently said at the beginning or end of meetings–reads: “Be a sister to every Girl Scout.” And while the wording might seem a bit cheesy, I can attest to the fact that the members of my troop were some of my best friends when I was younger.
I still remember the names and the faces of these people whom I have known since kindergarten. While we may not be best friends anymore, I would feel comfortable sitting next to them and striking up a conversation, no matter how many years it’s been.
I believe this is one of the most valuable parts of Girl Scouts: the opportunity for connection, both with my peers, and the world around me.
A main focus of Girl Scouts, especially as one gets older, is career building. I can’t count how many workshops my mother forced me to attend, how many tours of businesses we took, how many times I was either on a Zoom call, or talking face-to-face, with women in their fields of study or work.
In a world where women in STEM are underrepresented, I was blissfully unaware of that fact when I was younger due to the efforts of Girl Scouts. I learned about the careers of physicists, biologists, hydrologists, and so many more. Female representation was all around me, in so many different forms.
Girl Scouts made a space for me in places I would otherwise have never known existed. I learned to scuba dive, canoe, perform CPR, market items, speak in public, and interact with the world around me through this program. Maybe being a Girl Scout isn’t as boring as 7-year-old me thought it was.
