On March 9th, Tatiana and her Girl Scout troop held a forum. They envited several influential women from the community, including the mayor, a vetranarian, a doctor, another woman who works for the school district (cannot, for the life of me, remember her title), and their beloved school teacher! The girls asked questions such as; "How long have you known you wanted to be a _____?", "Were there any obstacles to your profession that you encountered as a woman, and if so how did you overcome them?", "What type of women stereotypes have you had to deal with in your life and how do you think any of them have changed since you were a kid?" and What advice do you have for us as we look forward to the future?"
They received excellent answers and were basically given the advice that you should never let anyone else define who you are or what you want to become. You should never give up on your dreams. Sometimes the things that are really worth it require a lot of effort and hard work to achieve. Women have come a long way in our society and they should be proud to be girls and embrace it, but it isn't wise to "compete" with men because men and women are different. Each is better at different thing, neither one can be better at all things, so just be YOUR best! I thought this was an excellent opportunity for the girls.
On March 17th Nick had the opportunity to meet with our State Representative, Andy Olsen. Andy was meeting with a small group of parents at my friend's home to talk about the state funding problem with education. We wanted to get some straight answers of what they were attempting to do in Salem about our continual decrees in funds over the last few bienniums and we got some satisfying answers. Hopefully some of their plans will work and things will turn around for our education funding! There were only ten of us parents there and Nick was the only youth. I explained that he was coming along as part of one of his Boy Scout merit badge requirements and Andy seemed impressed to see him there. This was a unique opportunity for him. Most boys pass this requirement off by going to a City Council meeting, but Nick was able to be in a smaller setting, ask questions and be heard, and meet our State Representative. Not many 12 year olds can say they have been in a situation like that. Both Nick and I really like Andy Olson, he was very kind and straight forward. He not only did NOT avoid the questions, he elaborated on them more than we would ever expect helping us to understand things to a deeper level. We really appreciated that and Nick learned a lot about government in one evening.
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