Badges, Badges and More Badges

Hello again, It's Emily (one of them) and I'm still battling boredom. To fight the boredom I've decided to turn my attention to all things guiding.

My first guiding-related task was sewing badges to my camp blanket. I know for a fact all the leaders are using all this spare time to catch up on the back-log of badges that have piled up over the months as well. It's a good idea for any rangers (or guides) who have badges they've earned lying around to get started and do some sewing. Badge sewing can be a long task, but it's quite therapeutic and gives the mind something to focus on.

My camp blanket is a thing of pride for me, on it I have badges I've been awarded from gymnastics, swimming and St John Ambulance, however of course the main subject of my blanket is all the badges I've collected from being a Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and now Ranger and Young Leader. When I was a Brownie I loved working towards and earning badges. My sash was packed and I'm pretty sure my other fellow Brownies rolled their eyes when I was given yet another badge in a meeting. I was something of a teacher's pet some would say back then (arguably some would say I still am). I just loved getting those badges, and I love having a record of it now.

On my blanket there is a section dedicated to each progression girl guiding. Soon I won't be a Ranger anymore, I will be too old and I'll be off to university living in another city and disconnected from my guiding world. However I still have several months before then, and a lot of that time will be spent in lock-down. So I'm back on the badge train and channeling by younger, Brownie-self  and I'm determined to work towards some new badges. Myself and my sister have already worked towards a couple of badges that have been set as challenges throughout lock-down and I'm working towards badges in our Ranger zoom meetings. Being a young leader is sneakily helping me earn even more badges because it means I can earn Guide badges too! (If Gemma lets me use that loophole).

To all my peers who are apart of this amazing, all-women organisation, the time goes so fast and I can't believe guiding has been apart of my life for over a decade. Start earning those badges and give yourself something to look back on. Some people might think it's a lot of work just for a badge, but when I look at my camp blanket I see all the skills I've learnt, all the laughs I've had and all the friends I've made along the way.

As soon as I sign off from here I'm making note of all the badges I want to get done!