Once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout

Katie Couric at the Girl Scout National Convention.

Fulfilling, gratifying and inspiring only scratch the surface on what this past weekend was like for me. Starting last Thursday at noon, I spent three straight days at the George R. Brown Convention Center (it felt like I was living there, seriously) volunteering at the Girl Scouts' 52nd National Convention - and it was the best experience I've had in a long time.

I'm a lifelong Girl Scout. I joined at age five. I became a lifetime member the year I graduated from high school. I've worked for my home Council multiple times - two summers as a counselor, one year in their communications department. I never considered myself a gung-ho Girl Scout growing up because I didn't earn every last award or want to go camping constantly...but looking back, I guess I am. I really love the organization and the leadership it teaches girls, and I will tell anyone who will listen that Girl Scouting is awesome.

I didn't have to tell anyone that at the GRB this weekend - they were all there because they agreed. And that "they" included the likes of Katie Couric, Sara Bareilles, Robin Roberts and Solodad O'Brien just to name a few. I got to see all these women speak or perform at some point during the weekend, each sharing her own connection to Girl Scouting. Their speeches were inspiring and uplifting. They reminded me of the girl Girl Scouting taught me to be; reminded me of the reasons why, despite feeling like I'm in a toxic working environment, I need to have the courage, confidence and character to power through this pit stop on my life journey; reminded me that the world is full of unfailingly kind, caring people if you just take a step back and look around.

These made me smile every time I passed one.

It was the girls, however, who left me feeling empowered. Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to live-Tweet the National Young Women of Distinction awards ceremony for the Houston council. The girls receive this award - none of whom have even graduated high school yet, by the way - had all earned their Gold Award by completing above-and-beyond type projects. One girl interviewed Holocaust survivors and made a documentary to tell their stories. Another grew her efforts to help clothe and feed the homeless into a city-wide effort. A third was working to raise awareness of human trafficking. Their stories were awesome.

These girls are a good 10 years younger than me and have already done so much more with their lives than I have. But instead of feeling like a failure, they made me feel excited - because I want to do something great, I want to make a difference in a big way like them, I want to make the world a better place.

And I can. Anyone can. All it takes is the ability to stand up and say "Hey, we should do something about this," and then go do it. Sounds easy, but it's that second part people have the problem with - they have the desire to make a change, but then excuses get in the way. But as I sat there listening to these young women share their experiences, I silently challenged myself to be more like them - to see something I want to do and go for it. You can do it anytime, all it takes is a little effort.

Pins I bought/acquired during the first day.

The other part of the weekend I enjoyed was how fulfilling the experience was. Part of my time at convention was spent volunteering for GSUSA. I worked as a guide, directing people to where they needed to go. I was amazed at how many of the women who passed me by didn't need directions, just wanted to stop and tell me 'thank you' for volunteering my time and being the host Council. It is AMAZING how powerful those two little words can be.

The rest of my time I spent running around with my old coworkers in the communications department. I wrote summaries daily for the Council's website about everything we had seen and done. I took photos of the different events I attended. And I got to feel like I was a part of a team, working towards something. We might have been doing small, superficial things...but as a whole, we were working as a Council to promote the mission of Girl Scouting. I felt like I was doing something with my weekend, and it was awesome.

Best of all, it left me feeling rejuvenated in a way I haven't felt in a long time.