Making an impact without even knowing it

There are times in life where you start to wonder what your purpose on life is. You ponder different times in your life. For some, they are really easy such as being a parent. But for those without children, such as myself, it may be a little harder to define that purpose.
Enter Girl Scouts. Although I was in Girl Scouts as a girl, like most girls do, I didn't continue through high school. Even now, I can't remember exactly why I stopped. But as I got older and married, I felt my life was unfulfilled and I remembered my days as a Girl Scout--troop camping, summer camp---and thought that I would like to try my hand at giving girls the same experience that I once had.
Little did I know that this would unfold and that more opportunities would arise: council and national meetings, trips to Washington, DC for a Sing-A-Long, numerous camping trips, service team involvement. The list is too long to list here.
The biggest and most significant change is when I moved to Elmira, and was asked to take on a small group of girls who were interested in Girl Scouts but had no troops in the school to join. I started the troop in the middle of the year, and the numbers were small at first but I knew that that may be case since it was middle of the year. As the school year ended and a new one started, the troop started growing. Now, it has grown so much that we have split into 4 troops--Daisies through Cadettes (grades K-8) That's when I really started to realize what my purpose in life is. I see girls who just love to come to the meetings, go on trips....the list is endless. I can't tell you how many times that one of your girls sees you at a grocery store and runs up to you and give you a hug. That, to me, is a true sign that you have made a difference in a girls life.
Even now, I have seen the fruits of my labor reward in leaps and bounds with my role in promoting Girl Scouts to the public. For so many people out there, they don't know what Girl Scouts really is all about. Its more than camping and cookies.....its building confidence and character who make the world a better place. I see this all the time locally and quite frankly, I'm loving it. People get so sick and tired of hearing about the economy, the war in the middle east, devastation in different part of the world, etc and love to see/read about a "feel good" story. You see, my major was communications in college and I have always considered myself a writer, on the side of course. Although my job now has nothing to do with any type of communications or media, I have still managed to use it and that to me is very rewarding.
So if you ever wonder what your purpose in life is, just take a look inside---its in there waiting for you to discover it.
~Carleen Hannan