If you’re reading this wondering whether Explorers is worth the application, here is my experience…
When I was little, I used to be a Rainbow and a Brownie and I never really considered joining the Scouting community. I would attend church services and parades, make crafts, and play games with the friends I made in the community. Once I became a Guide I started to feel that the activities were boring and childish and when I left I applied to become an Explorer in hopes to attend more camps and do more outdoor activities.
Explorers was very welcoming and relaxed, and it was very easy for me to find a group of friends there, and I developed a lot of interesting skills. I learned how to pitch a tent, make campfire donuts, orienteering, map reading, how to tie different knots in rope, crime awareness, wood carving, and even became educated about the history of scouting and their role in the world wars.
More importantly, as most of the Explorers are students either doing their GCSE’s or A-levels and college degrees, there is a lot of mental health support available which helped me feel supported during the most stressful times of my life. At the end of each weekly session, we overview our week and talk about all the good things and bad things that happened which is sometimes very comforting.
There’s no pressure to do anything at Explorers and a lot of the skills I have learned are very valuable when constructing a CV and applying for jobs. Now that I am nearing the end of my experience, I have become a Guide leader and I hope to encourage the young girls there to invest in camping and possible even allow boys to become part of the community… that might take a while though.
There is still so much that I haven’t had chance to do, I’ve done night hikes and cold camps but missed out on Hag Dyke and DofE (which thankfully I can do within the network). I can’t wait to chip away at it and make a difference despite everything, and overall my advice would be to push yourself out of your comfort zone, don’t be shy, and have fun.
-K
— Kayleigh
