Off to Camp

A couple of months ago I got an interesting phone call from my hubby. He asked me if our youngest son was going to scout camp this year. Our ward takes the 12 and 13 year old boys to Camp Geronimo for a week each year. I thought that perhaps my husband was getting old and had forgotten that our son is almost 17, not 12 or 13. I replied, "No, why?" He then told me that he had received an e-mail from the scoutmaster that said that our son was attending camp this year as the Junior assistant scoutmaster. Hmm, this was news to me. When my son came home from school that day I asked him about this. He told me "Yeah, I told him I would go if that wasn't the week of our Priest Summer activity." I was surprised that he was so agreeable with the idea.

Since this son is the youngest member of our family, he doesn't get too many opportunities to be the leader. At least not in our home. We all tend to think of him as the one who needs to be led, not the leader. That is why I am glad that his scout leaders view him differently and are willing to give him the change to be a leader. He seems to rise to the occasion when he is given responsibility by them and it is a great thing for me see.

This morning he was up early to head to camp.

Somehow, since our first conversation, the son has become a little less agreeable with the whole camp idea. It has turned into "I had no choice." and "I'm not going to survive or some of the punk scouts are not going to survive". I think this is just him trying to uphold his image. You don't want to admit that going to scout camp with a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds sounds fun to you when you are going to be a senior in high school. Hopefully it will turn out to be a positive experience and he will be the helpful leader that his leaders, and his mother, know he can be.