I haven’t done much Pathfindering since I taught the Flags honor to the Abu Dhabi club. I got overwhelmed with planning for my trip to Russia, and it probably seemed to the Pathfinders staff that I dropped off the face of the earth. Now that I’m back, though, I’ve been trying to fill in the gaps in the work that I’ve done and start working towards Master Guide again.
To that end I’ve been put in charge of the Abu Dhabi club’s Friend class. There are only four kids, and I’m going to have them to myself for about an hour and a half every week. That should be plenty of time to accomplish everything, but looking at all the requirements for both them and myself is still a little bit overwhelming.
So far, I’ve had some good results with adding the requirements in bite-sized chunk to my bullet journal. I’m not incredibly invested in my bullet journal. I don’t put a lot of time into making it look fancy, and I almost never use the daily spreads. Which, ultimately, is why I like it so much. Unlike with most planners, I’m not wasting anything if I don’t use it for a day or two. I love my habit tracker, and I alter it every month, but if I don’t need anything beyond that, it’s not a big deal.
My Pathfinders page doesn’t look very nice, but it gets the job done—I have a running list of what I need to accomplish, and I can check it off, and then mark the date on the righthand side. It’s much easier to look at a list of a few things at a time than the entire book, and seeing what I’ve already managed to accomplish is encouraging as well.
My current project is the knot tying honor. There are a list of knots that have to be memorized by the Friends and Companions, and Master Guide requires finishing the knot tying honor. So, it makes the most sense for me to do all of them at once. I’m making the board now, and soon I’ll be able to start gluing on the knots that I’ve memorized so far.
I have the utmost respect for Pathfinder directors. It’s a lot of work, and I know most directors feel overwhelmed at times. But Pathfinders has been an incredibly positive thing in my life, so I hope they all know that their work is appreciated.
Daisy M. Hall 