I'm guessing I should probably say a little bit about who I am.... I am mostly two things. I'm a music geek and a scout. (I'm also a gamer, but not a good one, and that isn't really anything that'll come up much except on side notes, cause playing games is really fun, but recounting and reading what happens in the games is kinda boring (*cough cough hack Zach's blog cough hack cough*)) (geek, nerd, and math addict also come to mind, but again, irrelevent...)
For those of you who don't understand it works, no, I'm not a girl scout. Boy Scouts of America has two co-ed programs, Venturing and Sea Scouts. I'm a Venturer. We compete with the boys and go on high adventure treks. This summer, we went on a sea kayaking trek in the Apostle Islands. We also got to go to camp for a week at Camp Tesomas (which I'm convinced is the best camp in the world, and I plan on working there next summer (if I don't get the job, it's ok, I'll work and attend NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training), this big scout thing). I've been doing outdoorsy activities with my family ever since I can remember. We travel a lot to go camping and hiking, or sometimes canoeing or making use of whatever other activities the area offers. We've been out east a lot, and we've visited Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine, among other places. One of my favorite spots was Acadia National Park in Maine. I'm also a pretty big fan of Wisconsin (not to mention their baseball team... Go Brew Crew!!!) and the U.P. The Lake Superior region is gorgeous.
As far as scouting specifically, back when my brother was in.... either 4th or 5th grade... I don't remember if he started as a Webelo 1 or 2... my brother got invited to a cub scout meeting by one of his friends. Nathan agreed to go, and my mom and I went with him every week. (I was in 6th/7th grade then) I participated a little when I could and I learned stuff with them (when I wasn't playing Pokemon with the den chief's kid anyway). I helped out with one of the Cub Scout day camps too, helping my mom run games and stuff. When he graduated from Webelos and joined Troop 224, my mom became a leader there. Since I was 12, and my dad works night shifts, I of course had no choice but to come with my mom and bro on the campouts on the weekends (not that I would have chosen anything else, it was more of just an excuse so I'd be allowed to go). I don't remember too much of our first year in the troop, but one of our first campouts was the cousel event the Highland Games (in either 2006 or 7, somethin like that). I wasn't allowed to compete with the boys, but Mr. Broman (one of the head members of the Blackhawk area counsel (though I didn't know him at the time)) invited me to come over and help him run his event, the caber toss. I thought it was great fun and kept playing with it in between troops and crews coming to take their hand at it.... after part of the day, Mr. B asked me about my experience with scouts and asked if I had heard about venturing and sea scouts. He told me about the sea scouting group that he ran and tried to recruit me, but I was a little too young. With my new-found knowledge, I went back to the troop and told the adults about it. The following year, we started a crew (yeah, I was still 13 and technically too young, but no-one really cared) and a few of the other scout leader's daughters/ scouts' sisters and I joined. We went to events like the Klondike Derby and the summer regatta, and it was great fun. We frequently kicked butt and beat the guys in our better events. Eventually, most of the crew died out, and I was kind of on my own again, but that was ok. I still went to everything and kept up with the boys (not that that's a difficulty), was on a teams with them for certain stuff.
Long story short, my 6 years in scouts so far have been infinitely amazing. I've met some of my best friends through scouts (including Ronnie Tufly, Gino Hartman, Caleb Holifield, Kyle Colson, Kellen Price, (Ben Marohl, Brian Dübner, and Collin Olsen from Tesomas staff) Steven and Sarah Brimeyer, Misty Savitzky, Andrew Geyer, Brian Hewson, Mark and Andrew Vermies, Laine Derkson, the D'Angelo brothers, and Jordan Devlieger) (I think that was a lot of shout outs there....) (there are so many others, but I am far too lazy to write down every single one, plus I don't remember all of the names of the people in the counsel.....) (anyway, if you're not listed here and you take insult to it, feel free to say so.)
I've found a great home and a community among the people there, and a great outlet for a fun time (not to mention to give me a safe place to participate in one of my favorite things, shooting sports, and to allow me to enjoy playing with fires, but not to the point of letting me turn into a total pyromaniac).
This weekend my crew, Crew 224, and our troop attended the BAC's Mountainman Rendezvous at Lowden Scout Camp. It was wet. and kinda cold. and very muddy. Having the wet gear to take home was kind of a pain, but it was sooooo worth it. I got to hang out with my friends Kellen, Schuby, and Alex, who happen to be the best friends of my new best friend at college, whose roomate happens to be dating one of my troops former/aged out scouts. (small world, huh?) (Also, on a side note, I placed 10th overall by the end of the day! I could use a lot of improvement, but I'm not gonna complain.)
I also just have to say how proud I am of Misty (our newest crew member). This was her first counsel event, and she did really well!!! She's looking like she's gonna be another sharpshooter, she's learning her knots way better than the boys, and she can climb across a bouldering wall like it's nothing!!!
I think I'm done talking about scouts for now... actually I think I'm just done talking for now... I have quite a bit of homework in front of me.... Next time I'll probably write about music stuff... or something..... anyway, Wiederschreiben!
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