On Missionettes and Why I Never Earned My Tiara

When I was growing up, my church had this program for girls called Missionettes. It's sort of the Christian equivalent of Girl Scouts (not sure what's wrong with plain old Girl Scouts, but that's another conversation. Probably one that would lead into my conversation about how I would have LOVED to learn what the Pioneers/Boy Scouts were learning and never had the chance. While they tied knots and made arrows, we were no joke learning how to stir in mixing bowls without spilling. Seriously? *insert explicative of your choice*).

Needless to say, I wasn't super enthused about the whole thing, but one year I decided (or was coerced? I'm not quite sure) into giving it at try. Really the prevailing reason was that when you reached the end of the program and earned all your badges, you got to participate in the graduation ceremony. You wore a silk cape and a tiara and got a rose. Really, what more could a girl ask for? Because even though I wanted to make derby cars and learn to build fires, I still wanted that tiara, too.

Since I was starting later than the other girls, my sash was woefully lacking in way of badges. Being the person I am, I decided to make quick work of that. I worked my tail off so I could get caught up by the time our first badge ceremony came around. Most of the stuff was pretty stupid. I remember that part of earning the health badge involved tracking how many cookies you ate each day. Even my pre-teen brain could figure that one out--"I ate zero cookies today...AND A MILLION DONUTS! NOW GIVE ME MY HEALTH BADGE, YOU FLOOZIES!"

Regardless, by the time the ceremony rolled around, I had pretty much caught up to everyone else and was prepared to officially gain the mountain of badges I'd earned. We gathered on the stage, our parents gathered in the seats, the older girls got their silk capes and tiaras (with the rest of us younglings salivating over them). When my turn came, I walked up expecting a mountain of badges. That's what I'd earned. Instead, I got only a few.

Afterwards, I confronted my teacher about it. I don't remember exactly how the conversation went down. I believe it had something to do with them saying I couldn't earn that many at once/there's no way anyone could have done that amount of work in that amount of time (which clearly demonstrates how little they knew me!)

What I definitely remember is the result: none of those missing badges for me.

I never went back to Missionettes again.

They'd screwed me over. I'd earned something, and they hadn't delivered. I felt scammed and taken advantage of. I felt like the girls who had been in the program longer were the favorites, and I was getting scammed as the newbie. And hell if I was going to give them one more ounce of my time.

I like to think there's a lesson in here somewhere.

That as teachers or leaders, at home or in the workplace, we ought to be especially careful to give credit when it is earned, because when someone works for something, has been promised something, and you fail to come through on it, you may just lose them entirely.

And also, for the love of God and all that is good and holy in the world, let the girls tie knots!