When I first walked into Wood Badge 137 as a participant, I was overwhelmed. I walked out still overwhelmed—but empowered. I completed my ticket, kept growing, and continued along my Scouting journey. Life moved, opportunities shifted, and suddenly I found myself with an opportunity staff Wood Badge 148.
And once again, I walked in overwhelmed… but for a completely different reason.
This time, I thought I knew the material. I knew it would take time and effort, but I didn’t realize how much of both. And now I wasn’t just learning—I was being entrusted with training a new generation of leaders. I was being asked to share a message, trust that it would land, and then let those leaders go out and strengthen their units, their communities, and Scouting as a whole.
No big deal, right?
HA.
SEEING WOOD BADGE FROM THE OTHER SIDE.
Being on staff is a completely different world. You get humbled the moment you walk into that first staff meeting. You realize your experiences—no matter how meaningful, or how many—are just one small piece of a much bigger picture. You see how much others have done, how much they’ve given, and how much heart they bring.
And then something amazing happens:
You realize you’re among servant leaders with the heart of a teacher.
You realize you belong there too.
I was surrounded by an incredible group of Troop Guides—strangers who became teammates, teammates who became friends.
I could write an entire post about them alone, but for now I’ll simply say this:
THANK YOU.
For helping me tie a woggle (and everything else).
For making gifts and memories for the participants as well as the staff.
For the smiles, the energy, the encouragement.
For showing up as your full, authentic selves.
And yes… for reminding me, “Eyes up here.”
THE TRUTH ABOUT BEING ON STAFF.
You may not feel ready to staff a course when you first say yes. But ready or not, the moment you commit, it’s game on. Every meeting, every assignment, every late-night prep session shapes you into the leader the course needs.
You may start out knowing only one or two people. You may recognize a face or a name. But by the end, you’ve laughed, cried, learned, and grown together. You’ve shared stories and jokes that would make no sense to anyone outside that room. You’ve seen whistle is the loudest. You’ve discovered that the questions you had… they had too. The doubts you carried… they carried too. And somehow, you sync up so quickly it feels like you’ve known each other forever.
WHAT YOU CARRY FORWARD.
The jokes.
The gratitude.
The late-night planning.
The realization that you are not alone as the only non-coffee person in the room.
The moments of “Are we really doing this?”
The moments of “I can’t believe we GET to do this.”
The camaraderie that only comes from shared service.
It all stays with you.
SEE ONE. DO ONE. TEACH ONE.
Ready or not, you may get thrown into the deep end—but you rise, because others believed you could. And because, deep down, you wanted to become the kind of leader who lifts others higher.
As a good friend once said:
People put you not where you see yourself, but where they see you need to be.
