Soaring

Eagle 1, Eagle 2, Eagle 3, and Eagle four aren’t call signs of fighter pilots, or code names for spies behind enemy lines. Rather it is an small inside joke between my dad, brother, cousin, and myself. Recently I got a plane and instead of going home headed out to San Francisco California. This trip was to visit with family, escape the cold, and to attend a ceremony in honor of my cousin earning his Eagle Scout. For those that do not know this is the top rank in the Boy Scouts of America. While you can continue to earn merit badges and awards Eagle is considered the biggest achievement of scouting. Less than 2 percent of boys that join earn the rank. This is one of the few achievements that you earn as a boy and leave on your resume for your entire life. My dad gave a very compelling speech about the meaning of being an Eagle Scout.

It revolved around the amount of work it takes to get there, how few accomplish it, and what great achievements Eagle Scouts have gone on to make. Eagle Scouts are executives of large corporations, have been President of the United States of America, most space missions contain at least one eagle scout, they have been leaders of the civil rights movement, served there country as soldiers and generals in all American wars beginning with WWI, and have filled many other amazing roles in history. In fact you can see many of these at www.eaglescout.org. Most people in the United States recognize what the boy scouts and above all what Eagle Scouts represent.

So what is the inside joke. Well my dad (Eagle 1 – 1970s), my brother (Eagle 3 – 1990s), my cousin (Eagle 4 – 2000’s), and myself (Eagle 2 – 1990s) are all Eagle Scouts. It was nice to see how much my cousin had enjoyed his experiences in the Scouts as I had. You make great friend in Scouts and get to go on adventures that most boys don’t get to have: Camping as many as 10 times a year, high adventure trips, participate in crazy survival races, work on all sorts of community projects, and learn skills in anything and everything from auto mechanics to beekeeping to art or sculpting. When you are twelve years old to eighteen you can do things most people think they won’t even get to try when they are adults. It was a great time.

One other thing that surprised me about this event was how much I think my uncle enjoyed being an adult leader. He had dropped out of the scouts to pursue agricultural activities and due to some bad experiences when he was a boy. But this time around with his son I think he looked forward to scouting events as much as the scouts involved. He was in many, many photos shown of my cousins camping trips and adventures. I don’t think his younger boy will join so now he will have to convince his family to go on trips into the great out doors (which I don’t think will be that hard to do). But I doubt these trips will be as frequent as he was able to participate in with the scouts. One thing I know too is that my boy(s) if/when I have them will be signed up to try it. They don’t have to stick with it if they don’t like it, but they do have to try it. Hopefully I can have some fun being the adult leader too someday. Plus we could get an Eagle 5, 6, 7, and 8 maybe… who knows.