My son is going for Eagle Scout

[thefuzz]

To you guys saying that sports got in the way....I'm not sure how.

I played and started both ways in football, JV and Varsity.  Also played baseball, and was still very active in scouts.  I can tell you that scouts got me a lot farther in life than baseball or football ever could, just an FYI.

 

[thefuzz]

On 2/26/2016 at 7:17 AM, Anybodyhome said:

I joined Scouts when I was about 12, made Eagle when I was almost 16- during the late 60's. I made Order of the Arrow before Eagle, which I thought was much cooler than Eagle, to be honest.

I was one of those tweener kids, too. Playing varsity hoops, American Legion baseball, Scouts, getting high in the parking lot and protesting the Viet Nam War. Needless to say, I learned how to prioritize at a young age... lol. 

Anyway, I never saw the Eagle thing as a major accomplishment and I definitely didn't gain any advantage from it in my future. Hell, I was in the Navy within a couple years of making Eagle and they sure didn't give a poo about it. Does it teach self-discipline? Yes. Does it require commitment? Absolutely. 

But in the grand scheme of things, I made Eagle, was recruited by a major ACC hoops school (at the time) in the 70's, joined the Navy and made it a 20-year career, earned 3 undergrad degrees and did a lot of other cool stuff in my life. What's opened the most doors, made many opportunities available, and is the foundation of my professional successes since? My Navy career. And I have to think that the commitment and desire to excel I learned while a Scout probably contributed to my success in the Navy.  

I was in OA as well, loved that stuff, but our troop was very active, especially when we got older.  Fund raisers typically paid for National Jamboree visits, snowboarding trips, mountain climbing and rappelling trips, surf trips, fishing trips, hunting trips, etc....we used them all to finish merit badges, and more so than anything else have fun after the boredom of Cubs and Weblow's.  We did some tactical rappelling, high angle rescue, whitewater rafting, tracking, wilderness survival, long canoe trips down the rivers...we just had a really good group, and a couple Dad's that really devoted a lot of time so that we could get the most out of the program.

As to an advantage for me being an Eagle, I know for sure that it has lead to one job opportunity, that I took, and if you join the armed services as an enlisted guy, you will automatically be paid as an E-3, not a ton but an extra $600-800 per month.

 

[cookinwithgas]

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

I'm an Eagle Scout, got it a week or two after I turned 18. I think it's worth taking the time to do it right, especially since some of the high adventure trips (backpacking, climbing, whitewater, weekend kayaking trips, etc) are really only things that you can do when you're a bit older than 14. I got so much out of those trips and out of scouting in general. You'd be surprised by how much it's helped me in college and life so far; a lot of the things you learn and experiences you gain will come up time and time again, and it'll impress other people and even moreso yourself. Especially the First Aid and emergency related stuff. No need in rushing it because it actually does come in handy quite often, knowing how to react or what to do in many different situations.

 

Anyways, I'm rambling now. I'm sure if he's in a good troop, he'll end up enjoying it and take his time. My later years in scouting were definitely much better than my early; less learning things out of a book and more learning things through actual experiences. A lot of good, helpful things lol.

[ladypanther]

SCP......that is cool.  Good for your son to want to do that.

[SmokinwithWilly]

Is it wrong of me to think that his Eagle Scout will have something to do with a restroom since he is your son.

[d-dave]

I got my Eagle in 1998, and while I'm not sure it's helped me "get my foot in the door" for interviews and such, it is a thing with some kind of value.  Personally, it helped shape me in areas of leadership, preparedness, emergency responses, "doing what needs to be done" and stuff like that.  I got a lot of good things out of it.  I had friends who were OA, but it just didn't appeal to me at the time, though I wish I had done it when I was a kid.

As far as a desire to push through, I would encourage the thought of: "its the journey not the destination."  If he wants to, he'll get there, but don't skip out on the good times as well.  I'm sure it will interfere with sports, and taking care of some of the tedious merit badges early would be helpful, but at the same time, I'm glad I went all the way through my 18th birthday.  You have a different perspective at 16 than you did at 13.

I would say to my son (he's 4, I got time) to do it.  You'll learn a lot more things than simply merit badge skills.  I still find myself going back to that knowledge and skill from ages past in what I do on a regular basis.  

[Zaximus]

I wish I would have done scouts when I was younger, always sounded cool and I love the outdoors.

[d-dave]

1 minute ago, Zaximus said:

I wish I would have done scouts when I was younger, always sounded cool and I love the outdoors.

Yep!  One of my favorite memories was going on a camping trip, we had the wrong maps (from the camp ground), getting lost, and finding our way out.  We wandered too close to a private gun range (that was scary!), found a weird trailer in the middle of the woods, windows completely blocked out, multiple gross vehicles and extremely smell smoke coming out of it...man that was an experience at age 14!  We did manage to find a park ranger outpost and told him about what we found.

[thefuzz]

On 3/4/2016 at 10:00 AM, d-dave said:

I got my Eagle in 1998, and while I'm not sure it's helped me "get my foot in the door" for interviews and such, it is a thing with some kind of value.  Personally, it helped shape me in areas of leadership, preparedness, emergency responses, "doing what needs to be done" and stuff like that.  I got a lot of good things out of it.  I had friends who were OA, but it just didn't appeal to me at the time, though I wish I had done it when I was a kid.

As far as a desire to push through, I would encourage the thought of: "its the journey not the destination."  If he wants to, he'll get there, but don't skip out on the good times as well.  I'm sure it will interfere with sports, and taking care of some of the tedious merit badges early would be helpful, but at the same time, I'm glad I went all the way through my 18th birthday.  You have a different perspective at 16 than you did at 13.

I would say to my son (he's 4, I got time) to do it.  You'll learn a lot more things than simply merit badge skills.  I still find myself going back to that knowledge and skill from ages past in what I do on a regular basis.  

I agree with you, the experience after 14/15 is so much better than the first 8 or so years.  Get the boring badges out of the way, citizenship in the community, citizenship in the nation, communication, etc...save the fun one for later wilderness survival, life saving, fishing, rifle...etc...those can be planned around really fun trips.

 

[Donald LaFell]

Definitely shoot for it. I think it's a great honor to hold. I'm very proud of mine. I still keep it on my resume. 

I was at troop 333 in Lake Wylie, and when I look at our "Eagle Honor Roll" I can pick out an FBI agent, grad students at Yale/Stanford, Med students, etc. Every guy on there that's past college age is doing very well. 

I can't speak highly enough of it.