In Part One, I wrote about our new Trailblazer troop and how it’s structured and formatted.  After I started writing, I realized I needed to break out our experiences from the logistics.  This one will be about the moments we had as a troop during our first year.

I’m entering my 12th year as a Girl Scout leader. I’ve found that there have been years that I look back on with a smile, and others, not so much.  Before this past year over a two year span, there were some bright spots, but overall it was a tumultuous experience on many levels.  There were times where I started to wonder if the door on this part of my life was beginning to close and it was time for me to move on to something else.  I told myself that we’d see how the Trailblazer troop played out, and I’d make a decision about what to do after that.

Then the pandemic hit and things were thrown for a loop.  The world came to a standstill. The National Council Session turned virtual, and three years of anticipation went out the window. Things dragged on throughout the summer, and I became very bored and wrote incessantly about the upcoming NCS.  But throughout it all, I put all of my hopes in our new Trailblazer troop’s kickoff.  We leaders met in-person in August to plan the year and crossed our fingers that we’d be able to pull it off.  I really cannot say enough about my co-leaders.  We work well together and come at things from different angles, which in my opinion gives us a well-rounded approach.  Continue reading