One Year Later!

I am absolutely blown away that it has been an entire year since the Young Women's World Forum 2010 in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It feels like yesterday that I was waking up in my hostel in London after three days of extreme tourist-ing, getting all packed up, and maneuvering around the tube with my huge backpack. I remember so clearly getting to Heathrow and having no idea where I was (even though it was where I had got off my plane three days earlier) and seeing a small group of young women with ties and trefoils. I was so relieved and excited that it had finally come! I was finally ready to go to the Forum! The energy in the meeting room on the first day was incredible- we all just chatted and made small talk- sometimes across different language barriers and we were quite comfortable with each other because even though we were from all across the world, we had something in common, we were a part of a global organization- the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. I remember thinking that everything my leaders had said throughout the years was true! There really were Guides around the world and they all wore different uniforms and spoke different languages, but we were all connected.

I really believe that YWWF2010 changed my life. It helped to give me a sense of purpose and a platform for making a difference. I know that I have been really slow in getting things started for whatever reason, but now that I am going it has become a hobby, almost an obsession. I am constantly thinking about what I can talk about in my next blog or what I can add to my next project- if the more than one hundred people who were at the conference feel a similar way than the world will be in a much better state.

I am so grateful that I had this opportunity and I look forward to seeing what will happen next both in my personal projects and on a global scale. I also cannot wait to go to Chicago in July 2012 to experience the Girls' World Forum. I think it is really cool that I will have attended the first and the last of the Forum series to celebrate the Centenary`s of Guiding. :)

Exciting News!

I am typing this on my iPod so if the font is wonky or if there are a bunch if errors that is why.
This morning I got an email from Girl Guides of Canada inviting me to attend the Girls World Forum in Chicago,IL in July 2012 as a chaperone for two youth members. The conference will sort of be split in half because WAGGGS is asking for the chaperones to be members who attended another one of the world forums. I am very honoured and excited to again represent an organization that I really love on a global scale. I accepted the opportunity and am looking forward to getting to meet the young women I will be traveling with.

In other news the website is launched and has already got a lot of hits from all over the place, but I would love to have more members so sign up! It will be a lot of fun!

Thanks for listening.

Past Two Weeks

It amazes me how fast time flies! I have been incredibly busy since about mid-August with school, work, and of course Guiding! Since I last blogged I have started Sparks up again and gone to two camps, plus some other very exciting things, but I will talk about that at the end.
          - I have eight girls in my Sparks unit and I love how enthusiastic they are about EVERYTHING! It makes me so excited to see them grow and learn through out the year and I love teaching them about Guiding and the world around them.
         - Standing Committee Workshop was last weekend and it was a lot of fun. I am one of my area's international adviser's and I am fairly new to the position so I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be doing. We had some great discussions about challenges and trips and even got some advice from the Chief Commissioner which was awesome! I have a lot of ideas now and I am excited to get started.
          - Campfire Magic is the camp that I just got back from. It was amazing! I learned so many new tricks, songs, games, and activities over the weekend and I had a lot of fun. My favourite part of the event was our Saturday night campfire and it was so beautiful with sparklers, flaming arrows, and colourful fire. I also got a lot of ideas for my classroom and my work with Sparks.
         - I have a Twitter that I try and update at least once a day so check it out!
        
Here comes the exciting news:


As of tomorrow Monday October 3, 2011 at 6 PM- www.girlguideforchange.com will be live!!!! I am very excited about this as the finishing touches are all coming together, but this will be another way to get involved.

CHECK IT OUT!

10 Years Have Passed

***I wrote this yesterday and for whatever reason it didn't post so when I say today

I do mean September 11***

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City in the United States and it is hard to believe that it has been so long, but at the same time it feels like it should be longer than just ten years.
I remember that day very clearly despite the fact that I was eleven years old when it happened. I was sitting on my parent's bed brushing my hair like I did every morning and my dad came in and turned on the TV. I heard that there was a plane that crashed into a building in New York and everyone was scared. I remember just sitting there watching the TV and hoping that nobody was hurt and then another plane hit the other tower and the cameraman started swearing and running. There was screaming on the TV and my dad told me to go and get ready for school- I think he didn't know what was going to happen next and if something worse were to happen he didn't want me to see it. At school we said a prayer for the people in New York and then my grade six class watched the news all day. That is all we did and I remember it was a boy in my class's birthday and he was mad because we didn't sing to him. It wasn't a time for singing. After school we went to the grocery and there was already a newspaper about the attacks. I was shocked! Newspapers come in the morning, not at night- that was one thing that really surprised me.
So many things have changed since that day and I do not think they were for the better. I might be upsetting some people by saying this, but September 11 sparked a campaign of unjust hatred for certain groups of people like Muslims and Arabs and made things like racial profiling acceptable. It is even more difficult to travel and feeling taken advantage of or violated in an airport is not uncommon. There are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that should not be happening and were started for a terrible reason. I am completely against having Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan because the Western World cannot just swoop in and fix something that they do not understand- it has been done before and it has failed several times, just look at the history of wars in Afghanistan. 
I hope for a world in the future that does not judge by skin colour or facial hair or religion or ethnic group and tolerance for all people. We are all in the same boat together and September 11, 2001 made it difficult for us to work together and make the world a better place for everyone. 

Thanks for reading,
Shannon 

So...

I guess I am not doing a very good job of getting my blog out there so I am going to try something new. I have started a twitter account and I am hoping to get some more views that way and I will also put a counter at the bottom of my blog so I can see how many people visit. I am also considering launching a full on interactive website and maybe a facebook fanpage. Pippa seems to have been far more successful than me in the getting out there department, but she has also worked a lot harder than I have... we will see!
Thanks for listening to my grumblings.

Book Review: Change the World for Ten Bucks

Now I know what your thinking, a book review? This hasn't been done before. But I bought this book back in February of 2010 at the Vancouver Olympics and I haven't really looked at it since then. So much has changed since that time in my life and I have a new idea about what I want to do with my life.

This book is really quite interesting as it is not a typical book because it has action statements on each page and it is made specifically for Canadians. I really enjoy that there are little jokes and stories in it that are not typical of "change the world" books. The ideas in it are also really simple and easy to do like don't use plastic bags and spend time with someone from a different generation to learn new things and recycle your books. The things seem really easy to do and I like that. It makes it accessible to the masses and that is really important. It also goes with my philosophy that little things make a big difference. I would highly recommend it and I cannot wait to pass it along. :)  

I am just curious who actually reads this blog. If you do please let me know! Either comment on this post or send me an email at girlguideforchange@hotmail.com. Thanks!

Perspective

Today I went to the funeral for one of my really good friend's step mom and it really gave me some perspective. She battled with cancer for nineteen years and never lost hope or faith in her family, herself, or her goals and dreams. The people who gave the eulogies all talked about living each day to the fullest and never leaving things until tomorrow. It made me think that I am not working hard enough or fast enough on my projects. I am also working on figuring out what to do to make myself accesible and open to helping others with their own goals and dreams. I want to help people to make change and I know that the first thing to do is get myself together so I can help others have success. If that doesn't make sense I apologize... I have a lot of thoughts and feelings right now that are not translating into words properly.

I just want to end with a quick thought that was shared at the funeral: Don't live like you are dying, live like you are living. That is what I will do for the rest of my life and I hope that this idea will inspire me to make time for my MDG work and other Guiding committments.