I was beginning to understand what sisterhood was. The weather had begun to warm up, spring was certainly in the air. The grass was growing gain, turning the earth from soggy brown to luscious green. I had started to see buds on the tree’s and sprouts of tulips coming up through our front garden.
It was Wednesday evening again. Pathfinder night. This time though instead of being dressed in my uniform I was in my jeans, and a golf polo t-shirt that was navy blue and white striped. I also had with me a hat. This hat was a navy-blue bucket style hat. It was pretty heavy too. The had had a mini first aide kit on it, a snowman looking creature made of orange pom-poms that had only one googly eye on it. Also braided gimp pieces at the back of the hat. On the front was both a crest of Camp Adelaide and Doe Lake. Pins of my All-Round Cord, Girl Guide enrollment pin, hand made friendship pins, and a pin from Doe Lake that said “Caught Ya Being Good!” So many other crafts were on the hat. There were so many memories of the sisterhood of Girl Guides and camping on this hat. Friends made and sometimes I only saw them in the summer at camp.
“Aime, ready to go?” Mum called up the stairs. I bounced down the stairs. Smiling I looked at Mum “Yup! Ready!”
“Hey everyone, thanks for coming a bit early, and thanks to Amy and Emma for having us here tonight.” Sitting beside Marcy on the floor was a video camera. “The first commercial we’ll shoot is the hiking one.” We had gathered at Amy and Emma’s house because they lived outside town. They had property that backed onto a forest and had a fire pit in their yard too.
“Harmony, Marcy, Jayda, Amy, and Sunni this one is mostly you guys in this one.” Karen was directing us on the commercials we were shooting for the Jeopardy game. “Hiking and singing a lot for this one. Sunni since you’re short you lead and Jayda, you’re tall. You’ll be at the back.” Karen handed the camera to Emma to shoot. “Hats on ladies! Signing start at verse one please, On My Honour. Ready? Action!” Emma was a head of the group. She turned to face them as they walked past, singing.
“People don’t need to know my name. If I’ve hurt someone then I’m to blame. If I’ve helped someone then I’ve helped me. And that’s the way that it should be. On my honour I will try. There’s a duty to be done and I say aye. There’s a reason here, for a reason above. My honour is to try, and my duty is to love.” Thinking to myself as we sang this song…this is what I love about Pathfinders, doing our best no matter what is going on. I felt a sisterhood with the girls I saw every week.
Hiking through the grass that was a yellow green colour back to Amy and Emma’s home was peaceful. The sun had started to set, and the sky was turning all kinds of pinks, purples and oranges Emma and Amy’s Dad had started the fire already. The sticks were cracking in the fire’s heat. The embers burned a glowing yellow and red.
This time the commercial we were making had us all sitting around the fire making s’mores.
“Camp hats on everyone! Find a spot around the fire.” Karen was sitting around the fire too. Marcy picked up the video camera and filmed us as we laughed, roasted marshmallows, and squealed with surprise when someone accidently caught her marshmallow on fire.
I felt a sense of belonging when I was with these girls. It was like a secret sisterhood that wasn’t so secret that I belonged too. These girls were strong and amazing friends. Even if we were in different grades in school. We all had that one thing that connected us and that was the Girl Guides of Canada.