“The Trail to Eagle” by Jacob Mattes

Have you ever had that one person in your life that helped you achieve something, and then when you look back you realize you could have never done it without them? Well it just so happens that one person is my dad and he helped me achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.

When I first started Cub Scouts my dad volunteered to be our Den leader.  It just so happened he was my Den leader through all my years as a Cub Scout. That meant a lot to me at the time because I was with kids I didn’t know and having him there made me more comfortable.  I just can’t believe he could put up with us kids for all that time, but somehow he managed to do it. Then when I advanced to Boy Scouts my dad became the Assistant Scoutmaster during my time as a Boy Scout. That’s probably one thing that caused me to achieve Eagle Scout because my dad put so much time into Boy Scouts that I didn’t want all his work to go to waste. Also it as just a great opportunity for some father son bonding.

Another thing my dad did during Scouts was he went on every campout. Whenever it was time to go on a campout he never said that he couldn’t go, he would always make it work in his busy schedule. The major campout of every year was summer camp where we stayed a week at a Boy Scout camp to earn merit badges. He would always try to stay the whole week, but he ended up leaving for a day to go to work. During the campouts he was very laid back and let us play with fire and of course knives. A scary combination I know, but what else were we supposed to do to entertain ourselves? Iv will never forget when my dad left camp and another Scoutmaster from the other Troop came over and yelled at us for trying to start a fire with a match and an aerosol can. I never realized before what a huge commitment it was to spend a whole week with a bunch of pyros like our Boy Scout Troop.

Finally, after ten years of hard work it was time to pursue the rank of Eagle Scout. After getting my service project approved and completed twice since I had to redo it. The reason I had to redo it was my dad failed to inform that if you use a steel brush on stainless steel it will rust. But after that painstaking process it was time for my Board of Review. That was probably the longest 45 minutes of my life mostly because I was in a room with eight people who asked me questions about my scouting experience over the years. Towards the end one of their final questions was what person played the biggest role in your scouting experience. My first answer was my dad and they told me to rank him on a scale of one to ten on his importance in my scouting experience. I responded by telling them that it was about an eight. Now when I tell this to people most of them say why not a ten? I tell them that my Scoutmaster Brian was in the room with me and didn’t want him to feel bad that he had no effect on my scouting experience. Then they made me leave the room while they discussed all of what I just said with my parents and Scoutmaster. When I walked back into the room all I could think about was did I, or did I not pass. Then my dad stood up and turned to me and said, “How does it feel to be an Eagle Scout?”

Due to all of my dad’s work with Boy Scouts affected me by wanting to achieve Eagle Scout. The one thing I will never forget is when he asked me how it feels to be an Eagle Scout because he played such an important role in my scouting experience. Also because of him being able to put up with a bunch of pyros for a week and not yelling at us like some of the other Scoutmasters in our camp.

Advertisement