Why I'm in Guiding
Submitted by:
Jennifer Parker
Paraburdoo Brownies and Guides
Paraburdoo, Western Australia
vnjxfs@echidna.stu.cowan.edu.au
Hi all! I just had to reply to the question of why I am in guiding.
I was a brownie in a very fun and interesting unit and a guide who found
the unit I joined was less than I had imagined (due mostly to our
leader's lack of interest in anything outdoors when all I wanted to do
was camp). Brown Owl was always my friend's and my idol and we thought
that the biggest honour would be to be a leader ourselves. It was our
biggest ambition so to speak. At 18 we started the first gumnut guide
unit in the district (not our old district but where my friend now
lived) after answering an ad in the local paper by the District Leader
(DL) who is now a friend. After 2 1/2 years my friend quit to focus on
work and I decided to become the guide leader as there was a unit helper
willing to become a leader and the guides had no leader at the time.
But then I found a job as a nanny 300kms away so had to resign myself.
The whole time I was away from guides (18 months) I felt as if I was
missing out somehow. I had loved the friendships I had made with other
leaders, the instant exclamation of recognition when you meet somebody
through other avenues and realise that they are also a leader - that
instant bonding that you rarely find in other organisations. But most
of all I missed seeing the exitement of the girls when they discovered
they could do something they thought they couldn't (like climb a tree
right to the top or remember what to do if somebody was bitten by a
snake) and also being able to view the world through the eyes of a child
again. I had no doubt that once I was settled in one spot I would
become a leader again.
Being guide (both as a child and an adult) has meant many things to me
at different times of my life. As a child it meant a chance to go to
camp, learn how to put up tents, hike, perform at the Perth Royal Show
and have fun. As an adult it has given me purpose in times when I
wondered what on earth I was doing with my life (when I found I didn't
like the university course I had been so happy to be accepted into, and
most recently when I returned to Paraburdoo after my father died 3 days
after I arrived here, knowing nobody in town except my fiance). It has
given me much joy working with the girls and seeing them grow from eager
young six year olds into self confident young women, knowing that
guiding has contributed to their growth. It has provided me with the
opportunity to share ideas and experiences with the wonderful women who
are my fellow leaders, the thrill when the State Training Advisor named
my friend and myself as being the ones who 'taught' her how to run a
gumnut guide unit during a training (when this wonderful lady taught us
so much about being a leader when she spent a term in our unit), the
opportunity to participate in a DACUM (designing a curriculum) workshop
on the job description of a leader and then discovering several years
down the track that these workshops contributed to the 'new program',
discovering that I can do anything I set my mind to if I'm prepared to
persevere and last but most definitely not least the lasting friendships
I have made with women who, like myself, are not afraid of making fools
of themselves whilst having fun (even if everyone else does think we're
all slightly batty singing 'The poor king' with actions for fun at a
leader's meeting). These things are constants in my life, wherever I am
and whatever else I may be doing, and are indicative, I believe, of the
true 'guiding spirit'.
Of course there are times when I feel that it's getting too much, or I
wonder if I am as mad as everyone else thinks I am (especially my fiance
who only sees the work I put into guiding and not all that I get out of
it). At times like this I think of the girls' faces when they discover
something on a hike, or finally learn how to tie that knot or pitch that
tent. Who can be sad, angry or upset for long with all those eager,
smiling faces greeting you at the hall or when you walk into the shops
with your fairly cynical sister and astound her by all the kids that run
up and hug you "just like Fat Cat" (a popular Australian man in an
orange cat suit from tv) or those older girls who are not embarassed to
talk to you in front of their mates. I am a leader for both the girls
and myself.
So that is why I am proud to call myself a Guide.
yigggs
Jenni Parker