Only 4% of Scouts have earned the Eagle rank after a long review process since the organization’s inception in 1911. Even against such improbable odds, junior Tyler Mason is not only planning to earn this rank but is also clearly on track to do so.
“I started as a Cub Scout, so I started in first grade and just never stopped,” Tyler said. “In fifth grade, I crossed over to Boy Scouts, joined troop 290, and it’s been going good since”.
Starting something as time-consuming as Scouting at such a young age can cause many people to fall off the activity. However, Tyler has taken his young start as an advantage to achieve as much as he can during his Scouting career.
Scouting takes a lot of hard work, and balancing school, scouting, and sports can be a struggle. To prosper in all of these areas, time management is paramount in a Scout’s daily life. Tyler has mastered this craft over his years of Scouting.
“It can be pretty easy to manage scouting,” Tyler said. “While getting Eagle Scout rank is hard, if you’re focused and have a plan to get through it, it’s pretty easy. It’s a meeting a week, every Tuesday from 7:00 to 8:30. It’s kinda like homework, you do [around] fifteen minutes every night. Eagle Scout paperwork takes the longest to fill out, you have to write list and list and list of what you need for your project.”
Of a Scout’s career, the hardest rank to achieve is that of an Eagle Scout. Even at such a young age, this rank is notoriously elusive. While the rewards of achieving the rank are numerous, so is the work to get it.
One of the main features for attaining the rank is the Eagle project. The Eagle project is large scale service project for Life Scouts (Scouts BSA) to demonstrate leadership, planning, and development. This project can often take up to a year and demands a lot from the Scout. However, that’s not the only hurdle Scouts have to overcome.
“Eagle project is only part of your Eagle rank,” Tyler said. “You need to have twenty-one merit badges, fifteen Eagle required ones, along with seven or nine elected merit badges, including life saving or swimming, camping, cooking, citizenship in the nation, and so on. You also need to have two years of leadership [combined] throughout your whole Scouting career.”
Tyler has spent numerous hours of his life working to attain these stepping stones to the Eagle Scout rank. Even though it’s a lot of hard work, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad or an inconvenience. The passion for working towards these badges and volunteer hours is what helps fuel most Scouts.
The hours spent in service are full of fun memories that make Scouting not work, but a passion for Tyler. Trips and experiences gained from Tyler’s Scout career are what Scouting is all about. These experiences help to grow a Scout both mentally and physically.
“You also have to have six hours of conservation service [to reach Eagle Scout], which is service protecting national parks or other protected wilderness areas,” Tyler said. “Personally, I have three hundred and twenty-two service hours. I do Mackinac Island service camp, which gets you around a combined sixty hours of service up there each year. [Service includes] raising the flags in the morning and evening and serving as tour guides in the day. We get to go live on Mackinac Island.”
While Scouting is a very physical pursuit, it also allows Scouts to focus on mental growth. Scouts don’t only make the world a better place through projects on service, but also the people they wish to become.
This personal growth can be seen through the journey to Eagle Scout. An Eagle Scout doesn’t have to be only passionate, but they need a deep understanding of the world around them. This is prevalent throughout their career as a Scout, and the required essay that must be written to achieve this rank.
“You have to write a list about your life purpose relating to Scouting,” Tyler said. “[My purpose] is to use Scouting to do a good deed daily to improve the world.”
It’s often easy to proclaim that you’ll do a good deed in the future, but the execution is a lot harder. For Tyler, this is not the case. Through his dedication to Scouting, it is clear that he truly means to do so. With every merit badge he obtains and service hour he completes, he is one step closer to his goals.
The impact that Scouting has had on Tyler’s life is prevalent throughout his daily life. Not only have the experiences he has gained shaped him, but so have the messages he has encountered on his journey.
“I always focus on this one quote they say during the Eagle Scout Court of Honor,” Tyler said: “‘A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are meant for.'”
