Have you seen the new Girl Guides of Canada–Guides du Canada ad floating around social media or public transit? The one about finding your BFF in Girl Guides? Seeing that ad activates a wave of memories for me. I may not have met my best friend at Girl Guides, but thanks to Girl Guides of Canada, I was able to foster and grow that relationship.
For years, I’ve credited Girl Guides with helping me become the person that I am today. As a child, I was painfully shy. I met my best friend Angela in Grade 2, around the time that Girl Guides came into my life. I fell in a mud puddle at school and my teacher asked Angela to stay with me while my parents brought me a change of clothes. This would be the start of our current 26-year friendship. We joined Girl Guides together and with the help of Girl Guides and Angela, I found my confidence and came out of my shell.
We were so glued to each other that our parents thought that maybe Guiding would encourage us to make more friends and maybe not rely on each other quite so much. But we still stayed by each other’s side. We made new friends, had great Guiding adventures, but never strayed from each other’s side.
Today, we are still as inseparable as we were back at the start of our friendship and Guiding is still a huge part of our lives. Now, instead of being Brownies, we are Unit Guiders together in the same unit! We sometimes see ourselves in our young Brownies, especially in the girls that cling to their best friend and are hesitant to separate and try new things. We know how to encourage them to try new things and meet new people but understand the need to stay close to each other. We know all too well that a friendship like that can be a keeper as the years pass.
Two years ago, we found some pictures from our days as Girl Guides and brought them into the girls. They were fascinated to see us as kids and to see that we are just as close now as we were back then.
Thank you Girl Guides of Canada for reminding me of the strong friendship I have and just how lucky I am to have that friendship.
Guest post by Kimberly Batten. Kimberly (and Angela!) are co-Guiders with the 5th New Waterford Brownies in Cape Breton , Nova Scotia. This marks their 10th year in Guiding together. Kimberly is also Provincial Social Media Adviser for Nova Scotia Council and is working on becoming a Trainer with Girl Guides of Canada. When she’s not busy with Girl Guides, she’s getting into mischief with Angela and loves to bake, craft and spoil her three cats.
What’s your Guiding story? Share with us on the blog – ggcblog(at)girlguides.ca.
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