Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I’ve always had a love for the outdoors. As a young boy, I was so captivated with playing outside that I would lose track of time. It seemed like I just got outside and my mom was calling me to come back inside. Those early days spent outside grew into a love of the outdoors. So it was not a surprise to anyone who knew me to hear that I loved the Boy Scouts. Camping outdoors was at the core of what Boy Scouts was all about. I enjoyed everything the Boy Scouts did, whether it was whitewater rafting, ziplining through the trees or canoe camping on one of the Boston Harbor Islands. What I didn’t realize is that The Boy Scouts was changing me. My excitement about being a Boy Scout was obvious as I blew advanced through the ranks of Scout, Tenderfoot and Second Class Scout. Within a year, I was a First Class Scout. Unexpectedly, it was around this time that my enthusiasm started to diminish. I became aware that senior Scouts expected more junior scouts, like me, to follow their commands. They always seemeds to be telling the younger scouts what to do while they stood back and watched. I found myself becoming disinterested as I avoided these older scouts. I didn’t want to be told what to do all the time. If this is what boy-led …show more content…
By the time I was 16 sixteen years old, I had advanced through all of the boy leader positions and obtained the position of Junior Assistant Scoutmaster while being elected to the Order of the Arrow (Boy Scout’s National Honor Society). I even undertook an aggressive Eagle Scout Service Project, —one that many said could not be done, —to build a 4.5 mile long hiking trail that has become the jewel of my community’s outdoor trails. These accomplishments required a versatility to work with a diverse cross-section of people, but it is they are the skills that I developed and honed in over 100 days of camping that were unexpectedly