I was a scout for 2 years during high school, I joined it because my brother was a King Scout.. and at that period of my life all I knew was to follow my brother’s path, he was the role model for me.
They said ‘once a scout, always a scout’.. I do have some fond memories during those scouting years, but it’s the cruel lessons that I learned that’s priceless throughout my life.
I joined the scouts immediately in secondary school, I was quite a pampered young boy that time, but nonetheless very athletic, smart and intelligent. I was one of the star junior just a few months in the scout, I was disciplined, obedient and passed the scouting test like piece of cake.
The cruel moment set in during our first camping program, we had to endure sleepless nights, aweful food, peers argument, humiliation by senior scouts and the worse of all empty promises. At the very beginning of the camping, the seniors always mentioned about the best junior camper award and asked us to worked hard for it, and I did. I thought I deserved the award but I would be ok if some other outstanding campers won it, but the sad fact was that there was no such award at all, it’s just an empty promise by the seniors just to boost up the spirit of the campers.
I was so pissed of at the moment but stayed silent, but in my heart I hated those bunch of seniors for the lies they made, and I hated them for at least another 4 years. Well I still remember my seniors as a bunch of liars, but I don’t hate them now, in fact I thanks them for letting me know that people lies for some stupid reasons.. yet they are still liars.
I was still outstanding, and although I didn’t get the award I was praised by many. Year end holiday was approaching soon and lots of crucial test during that 5 weeks break, I was expected to excel. Then came the disastrous event, I was struck by an illness (I don’t know the medical name) and was rested from sporty events for at least 3 months.. I missed out all the crucial test and that left me a mountain to climb during the coming year.
Lesson.. no matter how well you prepare or how good you are, faith plays an important part in every events.
I was under constant pressure (from myself) to catch up everything during my second year as a scout, and I found out a lot of things that they were doing were not proper. Some of the things the seniors did were considered as harrassment and torture to the juniors, and I couldn’t agree with most of it.. for me scouting should be something fun and not suffering. I ended up having multiple quarrels with the seniors, and I made a stupid mistake that allowed them the rights to take serious discipline action against me. Ended up my father had to go to school and settled the issues with the scout master.
During that period I saw how my friends turned cowardness and stood against me just because they were afraid to confront the authorities, and I also had friends that tried to help but helpless. Lesson learned, your friends can turn into your enemies in critical situations.. and in most circumtances your friends will not be able to help you even if they wanted to. Don’t take things for granted, only you can help yourself.
Because of my 2 years of commitment to scouting I missed out of other good things, like giving up baseball at that moment when I was playing quite well. As other societies favoured seniority pretty much I was not well accepted into other school organizations. I actually had lots of other hobbies at that period like chess, badminton and soccer, but ended up choosing scout just because my brother was a scout. Lesson.. don’t blindly follow anyone’s path and advice, even the most successful person can give you the wrong advice, so always think by yourself.
2 years after I quit the scouts, bad luck struck the scouting team. First there was a few injuries occured during scouting events, the worse being a broken leg.. and then multiple complaints were filed against them by the parents that their child were tortured mentally and physically by the seniors. Ended up the power and authorities of the senior scouts were taken away and the scouting events were closely monitored by the scout masters (a few teachers) since then; our school scouts dropped from being one of the best in the country and never recovered their status up to today.
Lesson.. evil will never win in the end, they might win some battles along the way but in the end, justice served. Always be a good man and do what is right, and never afraid of fighting for what is wrong.