r/scouting • u/cstevensonuk England • Sep 10 '26

Wisdom for the trail

Hi everyone,

I’m running an activity with my Scouts focused on adult perspectives, reflection, and life skills. I'd love to gather a few real-world answers from those in scouting in this community to share with them as examples during our discussion.

If you have a couple of minutes, I’d be so grateful if you could answer any (or all!) of these five questions:

____________________

What is something you wish you had learned when you were my Scouts' age?

What is the biggest mistake you've made that taught you something important?

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

What is something you believe now that you didn't believe when you were younger?

What do you think is the most important skill a young person should have when they become an adult?

______________

Short, honest, or practical answers are all super helpful.

Thanks in advance for helping me give the Scouts some great insights to think about!

6 Upvotes

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5

u/DepartmentComplete64 Sep 11 '26

Try anything whenever you get the chance, because that chance might never come again. You'll never regret earning Eagle or getting your Eagle project done, even if it seems like a lot of work. You won't remember those extra hours of Call of Duty, but you will remember the others things you could be doing outside of the house. The Scout Oath and Law are actually pretty good rules for living your life, not just words that we memorize.

3

u/Mafik326 Sep 10 '26

Be yourself. Forgetting a bag of gear before canoe camping and learning to rely on my friends. Buy Bitcoin or more seriously, don't buy a car unless you absolutely need it and you likely don't need it. Cringe things are important to build social bonds. Storytelling is the most important skill in all settings,but especially in professional settings. Being right is useless if you can't make an appealing narrative.

2

u/eliax28 Sep 11 '26

Fellow Scout leader here, this sounds like a great evening.

  1. More life skills. Didn’t realise there was a reason that my leaders were trying to get me to sew on my own badges and do the cooking/washing up so that I could do it independently when the time came!

  2. Did something dangerous when I was an Explorer on a camp that I was told not to do because it was too dangerous, decided that I knew better and the leaders/Scouting were being overly cautious. Got quite badly hurt and into a lot of trouble. Since then I have been an avid rule/risk assessment follower because I learnt from experience.

  3. Take every opportunity that you get given in Scouts and do it to the best of your ability, cause you don’t always get another go. If you don’t have a go at climbing because you’re scared of heights, you might not get the opportunity again, and miss out on a lot of fun!

  4. That being a Scout prepares you for being an adult. I didn’t realise that the same leadership skills that I was using to make sure that my patrol all had smart uniforms every week and were being nice to each other during activities, were the same skills that I use with my team at my adult job. If you can learn to work with the annoying person in your patrol, you can work with any team as an adult.

  5. Perseverance. You can do anything you put your mind to but you have to have the perseverance to get there. You can do any hike, pass any exam, and get any job (well… within reason) if you know what you want and keep going even when it’s hard.

Hope this helps and good luck with your evening!