Merit Badges for Grown-Up Girls

I've decided to create a new group over on Flickr. It's called Merit Badges for Grown-Up Girls and is based on the book You Can Do It! The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls by Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas (and Vaughn Catuzzi Lohec, and Dara Catuzzi Near).

The story behind the book is this... Lauren felt that many of us women don't give ourselves the opportunity to learn new things the way we did when we were girls. We don't invest the time simply for the sake of learning.

So she conceived this book, wrote the index and one chapter. Then, tragically, she died in one of the planes that crashed on September 11th. Her two sisters stepped in to finish the book for her and get it published.

It's an amazing story and an inspiring book.

Each chapter describes a new skill to learn and includes information to encourage you to get out and try it. And the last seven pages contain cute, little, round stickers, which are the 'badges'.

Here are some of the sections...
Dancing
Singing
Public Speaking
Travel
Activisim
Starting a Rock Band
Firewalking (!)
Quilting (I'm going to try this one soon)
Negotiating
Billiards
Scuba Diving

It just goes on and on, with lots of really fun ideas. There are 60 different badges to go for, some of them easier (Decorating a Room), some much more time consuming (Getting Your Pilot's License). But every single one of them seems like a worthwhile experience, even if all you get out of it is to stretch out of your comfort zone a bit.

So, if you don't already have the book, go get it, either at the library or your local bookstore. I'll see you on Flickr!