The Situation Room, How Girl Scout Catherine walked the path of America’s founding fathers with the Girl Scout community.

As I walked through the doors of Mount Vernon’s Library, I was immediately greeted with comforting smiles and warm welcomes. Held at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon, The Situation Room took me back to the 18th century where I played the role of General Attorney Edmund Randolph. In the interactive experience, we were tasked with voting on bills to pass into law, navigating our individual state’s needs, and even facing yellow fever! Our decisions impacted the outcome of how America would be founded, and in the end, we saved the country!

I was nervous to greet people because my mom and I arrived a little late, but nobody seemed to mind. In fact, you would’ve thought that we were right on time because as soon as we entered the situation room, we were assigned roles to mimic the founding fathers and quickly became engulfed in conversations.

At first I was talking to another Girl Scout about her braids, but somehow I ended up speaking with one of the moms about college, with a camera in my hand, before the game begun.

This is what I have always loved as a Girl Scout, since my daisy years. The sense of community and understanding is always apparent, even around girls nowhere near my age. I have never felt left out or questioned my relevance in a conversation at these events, so things like public speaking or leadership became a lot easier.

After this event at Mount Vernon, I thought about the question I had heard all day. “What does it mean to be a sister?”. I found that the answer was support. All of the girls at the Mount Vernon event either made a speech or communicated with others so that we could all win the game. I don’t think any of that would have been possible without the support of this team, and I definitely would have been more shy if I didn’t feel that support as well.

So, this experience at Mount Vernon taught me two things. One, support is necessary for a team to succeed and two, meeting new people is never a bad idea, no matter how nervous you might be.