Absurdity

I was only in scouts for a very short time, and I left not being a big fan. Mom put me and Jason in scouts as a way for me to get over my anger issues, and Jason wanted to be in it. I think I was only in it for a total of 3 months, pretty sure I never made it to four. From what I remember Jason stayed in scouts after I left. We went to the community centre at Valley Gardens, I believe we met once a week. There were the usual ceremonial stuff that didn't really interest me, and I remember going on 1 or 2 short trips, like day camping I guess, just there for one day. I remember once playing dodgeball in the gym at the community centre and throwing a tantrum because the other kids were cheating, they were getting hit but staying in the game. This really bothered me because if you're not playing by the rules the game stops being fun, and I just wanted to have fun. Imagine in chess if you just turned all your pawns into queens, the other person either does the same and you both start making up rules until the game doesn't matter anymore and it's no fun, or they continue to play by the rules and have no fun. I tried to explain my position over and over, but no one there understood; and yet they go on and on about how important the rules are when we go camping.

I only went on one camping trip, and didn't really enjoy myself. I had no idea what my role was supposed to be, what I was supposed to be helping with, they told me to help set up the tents, but no one told me how to help, and I had never set up a tent before so I just watched as everyone else set everything up. Every night there I wet myself while sleeping, I'd wake up drenched in sweat and piss. I'm not sure if it was because I was sleeping on the ground or because I was just really nervous to be there. I didn't have a problem with the outhouse, and used it in the middle of the night a lot, as my bladder seemed to be over active the entire time I was there.

There was what we thought an abandoned house that we went playing in the next day. I remember someone coming to get me to show me this house they found. By all looks it was abandoned, but as we later found out they were simply moving the house somewhere else. We went inside of the garage, some of the older kids were throwing rocks at the windows, breaking them, and playing with the car that was there. Later the scout master came to talk to us, and then one by one asking who was there, who broke the windows etc, and I really couldn't remember since I didn't know anyone there they were all a blur to me, names faces, all the same.

The next day I was having fun, hanging out with some of the older kids, when the scout master came and told me it was time I learned my compass badge. I told him I already knew how to use a compass, but he insisted that I come with him for a two hour lesson on compasses to earn my badge. The thing I cared about least in scouts was the badges, I just wanted to have fun, and I was when he took me away from my new potential friends. About 15 minutes into the lesson I thought "This is bullshit" and just walked/ran away. I really didn't want to sit there for 2 hours as they talked about compasses. I went into the woods and had some fun there, exploring, climbing trees, going down the least trodden paths I could find. I found a river and stayed by there for a while, I remember watching a beaver move a tree for a while. Eventually the scout master came to find me, as I had been gone at least several hours. When he found me I got angry again and threatened him with a branch, possibly throwing it at him, but then he calmed me down. We talked for a while and I thought everything was cool, he understood my point of view, and I sort of got his, that to have fun I need to do some non-fun stuff too, but once it was over with I didn't have to do it again and can go back to having fun. I asked about taking the compass lessons again, and he told me I couldn't until the next trip. We went back to camp just after supper, but they had saved me some food.

I remember someone firing a potato shooter, and one of the Dads or volunteers or whatever kindling by the fire a lot. I also remember talking to a girl a lot, can't remember her name, it might of been her I was talking to when they took me to learn about the compass, which would probably explain my anger at the lessons. That was it for the trip, I think I had the most fun when I was by myself, just exploring and going off on my own. When we got back from the camp trip they tried kicking me out, saying I didn't really belong with the group, eventually they gave me a choice if I wanted to stay or not, but if I stayed I had to work on getting badges and no more anger outbursts. I left, by this time I didn't want anything else to do with them. All in all I wasn't really happy with my time with them, except the time I got to be on my own; there was nothing I really wanted from them, and as I guess they could tell I didn't want to get anything out of this but to have some fun we clashed a lot, and that was the end of that. If I ever have children I won't recommend them going into scouts, but I won't stop them from going if they want to.