[There are many things I do not remember from my past. I figure, I better start writing about the things that I do because one day I will probably forget those as well. This will be apart of my series called Things To Remember]
I really do not remember how it began, but at some point, when I was about 8 years old, I joined the Girl Scouts. I did not know what that all meant at the time; to be a girl scout. I remember going to our first troop meeting; though I could not tell you where that was. I remember we were outside sitting in a circle. I remember my troop leader and her daughter at that first meeting. Meetings after that were usually held at their house.
Of course, we did do the whole selling girl scout cookies thing. I honestly do not remember how many I sold, or where I even sold them (or if I even sold any at all). I do remember that our troop sold enough that we were able to plan a trip to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri.
I remember the drive there. All of us girls packed into one vehicle and laughing the entire time. I remember my best friend, at the time, being in the troop with me (though I do not remember her being at many meetings). Her mom was a chaperon for this trip. I remember we were allowed to sort of wander off on our own at the park. Which, looking back, was crazy of the adults to allow (I could not imagine letting 8 year olds do that in this day and age). My best friend, J and I decided to go ride the monsoon. It is a water ride where you get in this big boat, go up a hill and then come back down a big hill causing a big splash. J was wearing a hat that day, a new hat. Her hat wound up flying off on that ride. I remember her being so upset and trying to figure out how to get it back. I remember we came to the conclusion that it must be in the pipes somewhere. Life went on. During that same trip we went to some mall. I remember eating at the Crayola cafe’ and everyone ordering Shirley Temples. I ordered one, not knowing what it was, and was immediately repulsed by it. The older girls in the troop were amused and acting like they were drinking adult beverages.
I do not remember much else from that trip except what happened as we waited for our parents to pick us up from one of the other girl’s houses when we got back. At that time, we only had landline phones. I tried calling my mom, our phone number started with 991. I accidentally dialed 9-1-1 and didn’t realize it until the person said, “911 what is your emergency”. My best friend happened to be standing with me and we both sort of panicked. I wound up hanging up the phone on them. I was young and dumb, I did not know that you are not suppose to hang up on them. It didn’t take long before cops came to the house we were at. I don’t think anyone knew it was me that accidentally called and we weren’t about to tell anyone either. Lesson learned.
Another story I remember in girl scouts is a “camping” trip we took. I really do not remember where it was, it was maybe a couple hours drive. We stayed in a cabin. It was one of the team building sort of trips, where we are suppose to do all these activities to build our own character and relationships. One of the activities was to climb this giant wooden wall in the middle of nowhere. I absolutely refused to climb that wall. I was terrified of heights. We also were suppose to climb up to a zip-line. NOPE, I was not about to do that either. Had I known in advance what they were planning on trying to get us to do, I probably would not have gone. Looking back, I was a bit of a wuss in certain aspects.
Another camping trip we took, again I could not tell you where (yay failing memory) was an actual camping, in a tent, sort of trip. We had one giant tent that fit all of us. I remember the first night, trying to go to sleep seemed so silly. We were basically sleeping like sardines in a can; hip to hip. Oddly enough, I remember there being talk about some of the girls making out with each other and lots and lots of giggling. The next day, at some point, we were sitting around the campfire. One of the older girls had dared me to jump over the fire pit. I was afraid of heights, but apparently not fire. I decided to take on her dare. I jumped over the fire (yay victory) and then landed face first on the picnic bench on the other side. I was bleeding so much we couldn’t tell where it was coming from. One of the adults, I think it was my leader, drove me to the nearest hospital. I was frantic. The hospital could not do anything for me without my parent’s consent. Which was fine by me because I refused to let them touch me without my mom being there; even though I was bleeding heavily. They got a hold of my mom on the phone and she immediately told them to take care of me and that she was on the way. They managed to figure out where the bleeding was coming from, but I still refused to be touched until my mom got there. I want to say I was maybe an hour or so away from home. My mom got there and they tell me I need stitches. It turns out I had torn the upper lip frenulum all the way to my nose; hence the heavy bleeding. I wound up getting about 32 stitches I think they said, they were dissolvable. I remember afterwards I was so hungry. Obviously I was not going back to camp and my mom was going to take me home. She decided to stop at McDonalds on the way home. Now, to this day, she says I wanted them, but I still think it just came with the food, but I was given salted fries and a strawberry shake. I ate one fry and immediately, my mouth was in so much pain. HELLO SALT AND OPEN WOUND, yeah, duh -OW! I remember going to school after the weekend was over. The stitches were hanging down into my mouth and everyone was questioning what it was. Some of the girls from my troop gave me a hard time asking if I wanted to jump over another fire. Hardee-har-har.
I think it was after that event that I gave up on the Girl Scouts. I had earned several badges by that point, though you wouldn’t know that by looking at my vest because we never got them sewn on. I still have them somewhere.
I honestly don’t really know what positive things I took away from the experiences other than forming relationships with people that I may not have if I wasn’t in the troop. Though, I don’t regret the experiences that I did have.
Until next time,
Jenn
Reclaiming My Sanity 