Why do I scout?

Scouting can be seen as a pretty unpopular thing to do, but honestly I couldn’t disagree more, I love scouting and here’s why;

1) I have travelled to more places across the world than I ever imagined I would with scouts! I’ve been to Japan and stayed with a family, I’ve skied on the Swiss alps, I’ve climbed the highest peaks across all of Britain and so much more! Next year, I’m heading out to America for a MONTH, to volunteer at the World Scout Jamboree where I’ll meet thousands upon thousands of scouts from almost every country in the world.

2) #SkillsForLife is the new(ish) tagline for The Scouts in the UK and it couldn’t be more true, the skills I’ve learned so far have stood me in good stead for a whole range of things that I do in every day life. It’s given me the determination to never give up on anything no matter how testing and it’s great to be part of the team that’s delivering the skills for life for the current young people in scouting today!

3) Recognition! Some of our young people and adults achieve such amazing things from right down in beavers getting their bronze awards through to explorers and network who achieve their queen scouts and have a trip to Windsor castle to parade on St. George’s day, and it is amazing! Last night I hosted the West Yorkshire scouts county awards evening and we such a vast amount of young people being presented with awards, it was really fantastic to see! Not only was it great to see the young people getting awards, but I also overcame a bit of a fear of public speaking! I was terrified at first and completely messed up my first little bit but after that my nerves calmed and I wound up really enjoying it!

Here’s some photos from last nights awards, the first is me and my parents after I got my awards, the second is me and the other host Sam, and the third is me and my friend Cerys who did a talk about explorer belts!

4) The last reason I still scout is because I’m in way too deep to stop! I’ve been in scouts since I was 6 and when I turned 18 there were no questions about whether I was staying on as a leader, everyone always said that I’m ‘the most scouty’ so leaving the scouts just wasn’t an option!

Do you do scouts?? If so why? And if you don’t, what’s your perception of scouts?! Tell me all about it in the comments!