Ask a Girl Guide: why the Promise matters

Somaya (12) is a Girl Guide, and a wonderful leader.

She first made her Guiding Promise when she was part of the Guides in Schools program at her primary school. Now in high school, Somaya attends a Guide Unit with older girls. She was selected by her peers to be a Patrol Leader, and is working on her Baden-Powell Award.

As part of this award, she recently visited her old primary school to help with a Promise Ceremony for the new girls joining the Guides in Schools program. Somaya gave an excellent speech at the Promise Ceremony about why the Guide Promise matters to her. We loved it so much that we had to share our favourite parts with you!

Good evening parents, guardians and Guide members.

I would like to welcome you all to tonight’s ceremony. I am Somaya. I have been in Girl Guides for two years and I really love being a Girl Guide.
All Girl Guide members are invited to make the same Promise, which is ‘I promise that I will do my best to be true to myself and develop my beliefs, to serve my community and Australia, and to live by the Guide Law.’
If we follow the Promise and the Guide Law, we will be very good people.

‘People with good intentions make promises but people with good character keep them.’

Before we decided to hold this Promise Ceremony, we did a lot of activities on what the Promise meant to us. Some activities that were completed by the girls were posters, picture matches, games and promise pots.

‘Be a good person but don’t waste time to prove it.’

The Promise means a lot to me. It means being nice and friendly to others, no matter if they are older or younger than me. It taught me to help others, to be respectful, and to be thankful for everything I have. It means honesty, courage and joyfulness.

I did my Promise in 2017 at school. My Guide Leader was Rosella.

We invited a lot of people to the ceremony such as teachers, parents/guardians and some students. We had food and drinks. We made our Promises, and got our badges that we had worked hard to get. After that, we took some pictures with the Guide members. After the ceremony was over, we helped the teachers pack up.

After I had done my Promise, I kept it inside me and tried to work hard so I wouldn’t break the Promise. Sometimes, I don’t try to do all the possible work I could do, but later I regret it. So I try not to do that again.

I am very happy to be a Girl Guide. Something I really enjoy doing at Girl Guides is completing badge work and working together with the girls. This was my story of becoming a Guide.

Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed learning about my story!

 

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