More Inspirational Girls Blogs
- Dyslexia: One Girl's Story from Tragedy to Triumph
- A Guide to Being Glamorously Green
- ROLE MODEL: Hazel McCallion
- Working Your Way Up
- Big Things Happen ...when you don't give up
- What Are YOU Meant to Do?
- Turning a Challenge into a SUCCESS!
- Meet Our Sisters from JAPAN!
- Sisters from Poland
- Beauty and the Beast
- "Only dead fish go with the flow."
- On your mark, get set...GO! Women in the Olympics.
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Ponytails of Love
- No Matter What!
- Friends & Sisters - the perfect combo!
- Facing Fears - a real life story
- SAPPHO: The Poetess of Greece
- Dreaming Big Can Be Hard
- Goddess of the Month - SOL
- Tuareg: The Blue People
- Inspirational Girls - More Than Just a Hobby
- The Life of Pocahontas
- Girls on the Run
- Belief in a Dream, Dr. Jane Goodall
- Goddess of the Month - Dou-mu
- Inspirational Girls and Women - Lorene Hatelt
- Be Your Own Goddess - Ganga
- Sisters Around The World - Egypt
- Inspirtational Girls and Women - Silken Laumann
- Struggle for Identity - being a young woman during the times of the Renaissance
- Girls Honouring Outstanding Women
- Be Your Own Goddess - Selene
- Life in Africa as a teen of the Masai Tribe
February 2008 Blogs
Dreaming Big Can Be Hard
INSPIRATIONAL GIRLS AND WOMEN, February 2008, by Jenifer Merifield
Dreaming BIG
Can Be Hard
Read how Girl Guides helped this
girl to persevere and get through it all.
Samantha Nash recently turned 16. She has a lot of interests and is always busy doing different things. Although she confesses that she can be shy at times, she loves being outgoing and trying new things. “I’m not afraid to be different,” Samantha tells us, and around here that makes her a Real Girl!
GCDA has chosen Samantha as one of our inspirational girls this issue because of the many successes she has worked hard to achieve, much of which she credits to her experiences being a Girl Guide. Both Sam’s sister and Mom were Guides at one time, as were many of her friends from school. “It was fun to meet new people at Guides and to see some I already knew from school there,” she recalls, “I loved it even more as I got older”.
Lots of Interests Samantha is the active type. She gets involved in so many things, Japanese dancing for one! “My Mom is Japanese so to get closer to the culture, at age four I started Japanese dancing. I loved it, and performing was always so fun for me.”
Sports and music are other loves of hers. Cross country is her favorite sport, and as for music, she‘s been in the regular, the ‘bell’ and the sign language choirs!
Any fun? If you are wondering if she has time for a social life in all that, the answer is yes. Samantha says, “I mostly like to hang out with my friends at their houses or go to the mall. Believe it or not, volunteer work is something I also really enjoy.” Sam loves kids and she has tutored French, joined the knitting club and the Youth Active Network. She also volunteers at a Brownie unit and attends Ranger meetings.
Not Always Easy Although it sounds like she has it all figured out, life has thrown some challenges her way over the years. She knows what it’s like to be the new kid at school. “There were only a few people I kind of knew, so it was hard. Everyone already had their groups of friends.” What she learned at Girl Guides really helped her to make new friends.
We asked Samantha if there was a time in her life that made a difference in who she is and how she can be so dedicated to doing well. “I went on a Girl Guides trip to Switzerland,” she remembers. “I had to go through an interview process and I was so nervous. But I got accepted and going on that trip really helped me mature. It was twelve days away from my parents in another country in the summer before grade nine. It was a HUGE responsibility and I was very emotional about it all. It was a big deal for me because I worked so hard to get there.”
What About Now? Today, Samantha is in the International Baccalaureate Program, which offers international education, so she gets a lot of school work. She knows it’s tough and that it takes a lot of dedication to get through it all, but her dreams are big, and they are worth it. In the end, her perseverance will pay off and she’ll be able to achieve her dream of going to University in BC and later becoming an Accountant.
As for Girl Guides, Samantha got her Canada Cord which is an award at the end of Pathfinders if you complete all the program work. It’s one of the highest awards you can get and she did it at age 14. Someday, she’d like to have her own Brownie unit.
Her Advice to You So we asked Sam what she would tell all of you; what advice she would give to other real girls out there who want to make the most of their lives too. “Life is overwhelming at times, but remembering to concentrate helped me,” Samantha started, “ In terms of academics, being organized and having good time management skills helps a lot. Also, being outgoing and not afraid to meet new people and try new things has really gotten me far in life. Find someone you can trust. I talk to my Mom about a lot of things. I have support from friends and family through the tough times.
Most of all, just stay strong. Every-thing will work out in the end, so no matter how bad things seem, stick with it.”
~Jenifer
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Samantha Nash, Girl Guides of Canada, dreaming big, Japanese dancing, cross country, Youth Active Network, Brownies, Rangers, Switzerland, International Baccalaureate, Canada Cord