Girl Scouts

Last night I took the girls to sign up for Girl Scouts. The girls were obviously very excited, but I was honestly surprised at how excited I turned out to be. I was so excited, in fact, that I signed up to volunteer with the girls' troop. This is not my typical mod-us operand i. Generally, I feel out of sorts around a lot of women. I have worked in the very male dominated industry of construction for over 10 years now and have always been proud of my ability to hold my own. For the first time since I have worked at Poltex Tile/The Granite Shop, I am the only woman employed here. Granted I do deal with female clients regularly, but my overall day at work is spent with men. It doesn't bother me to be the only woman here, but I have become more acutely aware to the slight discrimination's of my sex that are a typical occurrence. Yesterday, for example, I was talking to a (male) vendor who kept calling me "sweetie" during our conversation. Over the years that I have been in this industry, this is a relatively common practice for some. I generally overlook the cutesy names and carry on with my day, but I really got hung up on the fact that he felt it was okay to refer to me that way. Does he call his male clients "sweetie" while dealing with them? I doubt that he does. The conversation was over before I realized how angry the interaction had made me. I sat at the Girl Scout recruitment meeting and watched all the girls running around excited and playing. I could feel the passion and enthusiasm of the women leaders for this organization and I was infused with it as well by the time we left. I considered how grateful I had become over the course of an hour for all the things that vexed me earlier in the day and thank God for the opportunity to see the larger picture. I could spend my energy setting every man straight that I encounter who makes a remark I find sexually discriminating and possibly become very frustrated and bitter in the process. Or, I can just accept and be proud that I am one of many round pegs in a square world and that the world is better for it.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place, and
be a sister to every Girl Scout.

In an effort to use my resources wisely, I will not spend them brooding over the petty remarks people make. I will spend my resources by teaching the girls to be good conscientious people so they can make the world a better place.