I went through Cub Scouts when I was in Elementary School. I crossed over to the Troop when after that and went through it all the way through High School. We had a brief stint in Order of the Arrow and became members in the Tribe of Mic-O-Say together. We went to Boundary Waters (Northern Tier) as Scouts and most of the guys I crossed over with earned their Eagle. A month before I turned 18, I earned my Eagle. I was reluctant, at the time, or just not really interested in completing my journey but felt the pressure to get it done. At the time I didn’t really feel like I was doing it for myself, but more for the people around me. Sure I had support, but there were certain people that I didn’t want to let down. I did it for them, not me. Looking back now over 20 years later, I’m happy that I earned it. It has probably opened more doors than I realize, but in ways there were less obvious than I was lead to believe.
I was always under the impression that 1% of scouts achieve the rank of Eagle nationally. Now, if you look at the numbers I think it’s grown to about 5%. Still very small. Yet, to me, at the time within my troop, it seemed like it was a lot more common. Out of 4 families, there were 11 boys and 10 of us made Eagle (that’s 91% for all you math nerds). My Eagle Court of Honor was with 3 other scouts. Maybe that was to save time and money and celebrate everyone all at once? Talking to other Scouts and Troops, that’s not the way they are ‘typically’ done. We were either the odd troop, times have changed, or both.
Either way, putting all that together, it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. Some projects take months to complete the actual work, and then you can have months of paperwork. Some projects are physically challenging and take a lot of coordinating with finances and equipment. Some are simple. I picked a relatively simple project, all things considered.
I know it has opened doors for me, but I guess I don’t really see it. All of my jobs have been somewhere where I had a connection. Whether it be family members, or a friend (who also happens to be an Eagle Scout), it was always on my resume but it never really came up in conversation and if it did it wasn’t pointed out as exceptional, but rather “good job”, moving on. Maybe that was just the way I remember it looking back and maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe they didn’t really know what Scouts was all about? Who knows?
I think the real difference I have seen being an Eagle Scout is when my son got involved with Scouting and I mentioned that I was an Eagle Scout, I was looked at differently. I got the impression that if I said something needed to be done a certain way, they would listen. I got the impression that they were all ears to hear what I had to say. Not that they were waiting on me to lead them, but that they knew things were going to be done because I couldn’t let them not be done. I have kept a more active role here lately and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. At the time of this writing, I just got awarded my beads. If you know you know.
I’m not writing all this to say that I’m special or that I know more than anyone else. It’s just funny how can you do one thing for ‘someone’ else at the time and end up looking back on it and being so grateful that they pushed you in a certain direction. So grateful in fact that you came back to them years later and they pushed you again to keep moving forward.
“You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.” – Andrew Carnegie
I guess I was willing to climb, because I didn’t stop then and I’m certainly not stopping now.
