“Granny what’d you do when you were younger?”
“Same as I do now Clive. I Follow my dreams. Like when I was a girl guide. I did all these badges. Cooking…”
“But Granny you can’t cook.”
“I know but I was following my dream. I did other badges too – hiking and astronomy, and first aid and sewing…”
“But Granny you don’t hike and I knows you don’t sew.”
“Oh but I was following my dream. Once I got my Queen’s Guide, the biggest badge of all, I could go after the next dream. Clive, you gotta follow your dream.”
In response to Charli’s prompt where she asks:
March 22, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story using the theme “follow your dreams.” Bonus points for throwing a badge into the tale. Go where the prompt leads.
- Respond by March 27, 2018, by leaving a link, pingback or story in the comments.
- If you want your story published in the weekly collection, also post it at Carrot Ranch on Facebook in the post newsfeed (this is the second posting of your story).
- Follow the style of the flash fiction that follows.
- Leave a short link on FB with your story if you want one included in the title.
- Rules are here.
Take note: if you want to submit to the Ranch and be included in the compilation there is a different procedure to make Charli’s life that little bit easier.
This one is a BOTS – I am never going to be a granny but I was a girl guide and I can still remember working for my badges and the thrill of reaching the pinnacle. The day of the presentation at Government House at Kirribilli was something I looked forward to for weeks. Sir Roden Cutler was going to shake my hand. We had only shortly before moved into a new house which my parents allowed me to furnish my room from my budget as I liked. I was so proud of it and I felt like an adult and what do adults do – they protect stuff so I filled my wardrobes with napthalene to ward off any moths from my clothes and shag pile carpet. The only thing I warded off was me as it gave me asthma and bronchitis and I couldn’t sleep in my room for about six weeks. The doctor forbade me from washing my hair for the same length of time and with the spray on hair cleaner in my hair (I don’t know if you can still buy it) I turned up at Government house.
© irene waters 2018
© irene waters 2018
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I enjoy your flash fiction. Most of my siblings were in boy scout, girl scout, but I wasnot. So I look forward to earn some badges.
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Thanks. Yes it will be fun to earn some badges at the ranch. Good for goal oriented people.
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I’ll wait on that. I had been setting goals for 30 years in my career. Now I’m retired, I keep a routine, but mentally I want to feel free.
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Sensible lady. I have to learn to do the same.
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We learned to set lower than 100% achievable goals.
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Wow did you get your Queen’s Guide? Good write!
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Thanks Kate. Yes I did. It was a big achievement because I did have to do badges that I had absolutely no interest in – like cooking and sewing – but it sure taught me life skills. And meeting Sir Roden Cutler was such a thrill.
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Congratulations, well done you! I don’t mind sewing but cooking would be a leap, I used to earn badges for the Rays club.
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I have never heard of the Rays club. Tell me more.
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Methodist Church, it was their girl guides equivalent, you worked for badges, visiting the aged and sick, running creche, etc I did them all 🙂
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No I didn’t know that.
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ah glad to teach you something new 🙂
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Great little story with a wonderful truth in it. I like the picture that you follow it with and the little blurb about yourself. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Your flash made me laugh, but it also made me think. Often, to follow our dreams we have to pursue badges we’ll never truly master but it’s a step closer to shaking the hand of someone important in our lives. Love the photos and learning about the story behind the BOTS, but what a scary encounter with chemical-induced asthma and bronchitis!
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You are right Charli. Each badge is a step closer to a goal. Once the goal is reached there has to be a new dream to replace it with. And in the journey dreams can change. You are a wonderful example of someone who dreams and makes the moves to make those dreams a reality but when reached you have another one up your sleeve. You are an inspiration.
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I like to think of it as the closer we get to our dream the richer in detail and variation it becomes. It’s okay for dreams to change because they are alive, not stones. But I like dreams and rocks! It keeps us all going.
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They absolutely do Charli. Dream on.
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Oh Irene, what a wonderful BOTS and your photos are wonderful! I seem to remember reading about you achieving Queen’s Guide and having a chat about it on one of our walks. You followed your dream indeed, what a fantastic achievement! I dreamed too, but only briefly, and didn’t get that far, but I do remember being a Patrol Leader of the Kingfishers for a time 🙂 Let’s hope I do better with my writing dream, ha 😉 I got to enjoy the dream vicarously on behalf of my eldest son when he made Eagle Scout in America, the boy’s American equivalent. Oh the work that went into that, which I also remember very well! Wonderful post, set me up for the day with a huge smile, thanks Irene! 🙂 ❤
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I thought I’d written something about it in the past but I looked and couldn’t find a thing. Perhaps it was something we just got talking about on one of our walks. Well done to your son. Do you have kingfishers in the UK. I guess you do. Of course we have kookaburras here as the kingfisher that is most Australian but we have a few others also. Glad I made you smile as you do me.😄
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Oh maybe that was it, I know we talked about it at some point and being so impressed you made Queen Guide! And this time, I just loved seeing your photos. I look awful in my uniform in the one and only photo my mum has of me which will never see the light of day here or anywhere! We do have kingfishers, very elusive, and I actually got to see one on my birthday a few years ago, such a thrill. I’ve always been fascinated by kookaburras, thinking of them as quintessentially Australian. And yes, I am smiling now Irene 🙂 ❤
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I’m sure you looked absolutely gorgeous in your uniform. I had a comment one day on a photo I posted of myself from the past congratulating me on having the courage to post such a photo – as not many women would. I laughed.
glad you’re smiling Sherri – now think of a kookaburra and laugh. Lovely talking to you.❤️
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Haha…I really did look horrible, lanky and spotty lol! I love that you post your photos, always have enjoyed seeing you as little Irene and learning more about your life through pictures and words 🙂 I’m smiling and laughing just thinking of the fun we’ve had and lots more to come with kingfishers and kookaburra’s and everything inbetween. Love & hugs…have a wonderful weekend my friend! 😀 😉 ❤
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LOL. Thanks Sherri. You too have a lovely Easter holiday and we’ll walk next week. ❤️
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Thanks Irene…a lovely Easter and hope for you too. And now it is Friday and I am way behind blogging wise, so will start fresh next week and look forward to walking and talking then. Have a lovely weekend 🙂 ❤ 🙂
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A great piece of flash fiction, Irene. I really enjoyed reading about your girl guide adventure. I was a brownie for about six weeks. I was to shy to go for badges so I stopped going.
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Ah, stepping stone badges. What a bother! Glad you got where you were headed, cooking and bronchitis and all.
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Great story, Irene and what a proud moment for you in the Guides, getting all those badges 🙂
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Thanks Judy. It was a proud moment and earning the badges I believe gave me a lot of life skills that I would not have, had I not done them.
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Definitely, I agree, they are very practical skills to have. 🙂
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Your flash made me think of people collecting experiences like badges, always moving on to the next thrill. Great for girl guides etc however!
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Thanks Anne. That is an interesting thought. I know someone who my husband and I believed had a list of experiences the superbly normal person would have by age. As she achieved each one she ticked it off. Just like working for a badge.
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Lots of people here have their bucket lists of ‘must-dos’, often several things each of which might suffice for one lifetime.
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Yes I agree. I have read a few bucket lists on word press and I wonder a) when will they work b) if they don’t work how do they pay for it.
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Reblogged this on SEO.
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Thank you for the reblog.
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