Teen Voting

Off topic today.

Check out this video. Emma, who is graduating from high school next week has taken on the challenge of helping teens to register to vote as her Gold Award project for Girl Scouts. She has worked hard all year building awareness and getting teens involved and empowered.

See some real live San Diego teens. My daughter makes an appearance. Cute kids! Yes, I’m partial.

Emma could use the views and support!

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

 

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Real Girls

It’s July already! Summer!

As a summer kickoff/pre-senior year celebration, my Girl Scout Troop recently traveled to Catalina, an island off the shore of southern California. There was nothing particularly “Girl Scouty” about our vacation. No badges earned, no roughing it. We stayed in an adorable house with real beds and our main focus was fun: kayaking, paddle boarding, shopping, eating ice cream, playing games.

[Sidetrack confession: About seventeen years ago I was pregnant and teaching middle school. When I found out I was having a girl child, I was frightened! The middle school girls I was teaching and the ones I had known as a fellow middle schooler were, to be brutally honest, terrifying.]

But oh how I adore this group of girls. Most of them have been together since kindergarten. They have been such an unexpected blessing and a bonus of having that (pretty darn amazing) girl child. Of course we’ve had our challenges and conflicts along the way, but there is nothing scary about being with these amazing young women preparing for their futures.

In some ways they have little in common – see my informal statistics below – but in other ways they have everything that matters in common. Get the group of them together and there is a lot of laughter (and eating ice cream).

For those of you interested in the female teen psyche, I thought I’d throw out some informal statistics about these “real” girls.

9 girls in the troop, all from the same neighborhood

1 couldn’t go with us on the trip

6 different high schools

1 dancer

4 committed athletes

1 cheerleader (1 former cheerleader)

2 musicians in the school band

7 with driver’s licenses

1 in student government

2 with boyfriends they were willing to mention, one lives across the country

1 bilingual (Spanish)

4 in organized religion, 2 at the same church

1 World of Warcraft enthusiast

2 with paying jobs

3 volunteer enough to be considered a real job

9 with parents who are still together

1 adopted

5 with at least one familial sister, 0 only children

One more year until graduation. All of these girls are filled with hopes and dreams and big big plans. The future awaits!

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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