For those of you who don’t know (despite my constant complaining), I’m working on my Eagle Project, a major service project required of all Boy Scouts who want to earn their Eagle Rank, and it is, without a doubt, the most ambitious thing I have ever done, more ambitious even than applying here and expecting to do well. I never could have imagined how intricate the application process would be, how complex the design work would be, or how long the process would take from start to finish (six months in and I’m still not quite done).
Nor could I have imagined the outpouring of support from the beneficiary, my troop, or my family. I have had companies donate time and resources, and several of the mentors in my troop have given their time and expertise to help me complete the work.
So what did I build? A shed.
On the face of it, one would think that building an eight foot by ten foot tool shed would be pretty easy; after all, I picked, without exaggeration, the simplest design in the book.
I could not have been more wrong. My Eagle Project taught me that no matter how easy something looks, it’s always more complex than it appears. I thought building a shed would be easy; looking back, I didn’t know the difference between pressure treated pine and regular pine or studs and joists, or even that a 2×4 was not, in fact, two inches by four inches. I learned all of it the hard way, through experience and failure.
But by the same token, I learned more about myself than I thought possible, and I learned more about others. I realized that people are always willing to help, and that with the right help, anything is possible. I also found out what happens when I don’t ask for help: I make the process excessively hard and time-consuming, and I become miserable in the process. I learned that there are two things one should never do: Be asked for help and not provide it; and need help and not ask for it.
So as we approach finals, I’d like to ask you, the student body, to do two things: give help when asked, and ask for help when you need it.