Starting my Rebel Badge Adventures

I have joined the Rebel Badge Club and am looking forward to earning “adult merit badges” over the coming weeks and months as part of my Rebel Badge Adventures.

Regular readers will know that I am a goal-setter and that my goals help to drive me forward in life. Forward through stress and grief; forward with laughter and adventure. Indeed, this blog is part of that drive forward as I’ve used it as an “excuse” to get out of the house for adventures so that I have (had) something exciting to share with my Mum. And now, I will add my Rebel Badge Book to my tool kit of motivations and inspirations.

There are 52 Rebel Badges in the book and I will endeavour to earn all of them. However, I am not setting a deadline for doing so. That’s a little unlike me as I do love a good time-specific goal but joining the Rebel Badge Club is a means to an end for me, rather than a primary goal on its own.

Each badge has a series of steps or actions to work through to earn the badge. Sometimes, you must complete all of them in the series and other times you can select a sub-set to satisfy the requirements. You can earn some badges in a day or two whilst others require you to work on them for 3-6 months.

I have started working through the book to conduct an audit of the required skills and “do-ability” of each badge. As expected, some of them will be very easy whilst others will be nearly (but not completely) impossible. For Rebels who’ve already “done” the tasks for a badge, they can claim the badge immediately without having to “re-do” things. For example, if you’ve been a regular volunteer with a community group, you can claim that badge without going out and volunteering for 6 months.

However, because I like to challenge myself, I will not just give myself badges I’ve already “earned”. Instead, I will make amendments to the steps or, in some cases, I will start over.

For example, the “Runner” and “Diarist” badges require activities that I am already doing regularly. Before I award myself those badges, I will complete additional tasks or challenges. That’s because my ultimate goal is to do/try/experience new things.

Of course, some badges (like “Water Sports” and “Wild Swimmer”) will be extremely difficult for me. In the first instance, I am not a swimmer nor do I really enjoy water sports. (But I do love being in and near the water.) I also can’t use swimming pools because the chlorine wreaks havoc on my platelet counts. I will have to give a lot of thought to how I will manage these badges. But I’ll do my best to earn them if I can.

I am looking forward to learning new skills and improving existing skills as I work through the badges. And, as always, I will be sharing my journey here on JustFrances. That means you can expect posts specifically about my Rebel Badge Adventures in the coming months as well as posts that make passing mention of my progress towards badges.

I have created a badge-tracking page where I will link through to my completed badges. You can check out the page now to see the list of badges available. And over time, you’ll be able to see the list change as I begin working towards the 52-badge set.

If you want to join the Rebel Badge Club, you can order a book here. Do let me know if you are joining along, as I’d love to share experiences with you!

Oh! The second book in the photo with this post is for one of my sisters, Royann. I’ll be bringing it to her when I travel home this summer and am looking forward to working on some of the badges with her during my visit.