Scouts

I don't really remember joining scouts in the first place. I mean, I know how it happened - I've heard the story multiple times - but I don't really remember it. I just remember being in it at one point. And when I was in cub scouts, being about eight years old when I first joined, none of it really had that much impact on me. On occasion dad would have me get dressed up in my little uniform and we would go out to the school for a meeting, or to someone's house, and on rare occasions we would actually go somewhere like a museum or a fire department. In the summer we would go to some park and get to do a few actually interesting things, like shooting bb guns or doing archery.

When I got to the end of cub scouts, and people around me were getting ready to go into boy scouts, I didn't really see the appeal. I had never been all that big a fan of scouts and the things we did in them. Some of the other kids were ok, but I wasn't great friends with them or anything. It mostly just seemed like a place to go to spend time, and I was always a gamer, so I would have much rather been spending that time playing games. Hell, there were some nights that I kept playing my games even at the meeting.

That was one of the only times in my life that my dad really pushed me to do something. For the most part, he's let me make my decisions, and deal with their consequences. But my dad did everything in his power to convince me to join boy scouts, to the point that he had me talk to one of my friend's older brother, who was in scouts. And eventually I succumbed and I joined, though I will freely admit that I wasn't overly enthused about the idea.

The boy scouts changed my life. Everything that I do today can, in some way, be tied back to the boy scouts. All of my passions, all of my hobbies, all of the people that I know. I learned about National Novel Writing Month from a friend in scouts. I joined martial arts because of a guest speaker we had at scouts. I discovered lacrosse because they were having a scout night. My guitar teacher was a teacher of another friend from scouts. And everything since has off shoot from that - I met my girlfriend through that guitar teacher, for one.

I learned to love the outdoors. I learned to love helping people. I learned to be a leader. I learned to make friends. I learned to be honest, to work hard, and to never give up. All lessons that I forget at times, but that help define who I am. I literally would not be who I am without the scouts.

It's been a few years since I was really involved. I've fallen out of going outdoors, and camping, and hiking, and experiencing new things almost every other weekend. That's something I need to get back to. It can get tiring, but those kinds of things can really help to give your life focus and meaning. And I could really use some of that from time to time.