"I am what I choose to become."

 “I am not what happened to me,
I am what I choose to become.”
                    – Carl Gustav Jung, Analytical Psychologist

And isn't this where our girls are now? These middle schoolers are learning who they are, changing who they are, reinventing themselves and making choices on who they want to become.  In a safe environment.  Within a great Girl Scout Leadership Essentials program!

This is the time for the girl to explore!  Take a Journey, or two.  Gain some skills working on the new badges in the Cadette Girl Guide.  Maybe take the PA training and learn how she can use her leadership skills to help younger girls. Or set her sights on CIT training in a couple years. Or plan to take a destinations adventure in the coming years.

This is the time to investigate the community and identify issues that she might want to choose for her Silver Award Take Action Project.  She may be gung-ho about it, with parents cringing in the wings, or she might be timid, and need the parents/advisors to bolster up her courage so that she can learn and grow.

The girl gets to choose!  She gets to re-invent herself, if that's what she wants.  If she's been with the same troop girls since Daisys, she may reach out to other Scouts in other troops, so that she is no longer known as the "barf-o-rina" girl who gave up lunch at a campout in front of everyone.  She may want to choose her new public profile. Or not.

Girl Scouts is great about giving choices, both to the girls, the parents and the advisors.  A difficult situation for some, but as we see more and more girls and adults embracing the new leadership model, we see a greater comfort level.  There is more to do, more ways to do it, and more encouragement along the way.

It's exciting to see what these girls are going to choose, to make the world a better place.