READY FOR ANYTHING

On January 13, 2018, Hawaii residents flew into a frenzy at the incoming-ballistic-missile warning that had appeared on devices all over the island. Some individuals hunkered down in their homes, hoping for safety in their panicked haze, while others resigned themselves to their fate, serenely going about their day in spite of the threat looming over their heads. Maxwell Lee, a seventh grader at the time, was part of the former group. “I was just kind of panicking. I didn’t know what to do,” Lee remembers. However, his fear prompted him to reconsider some things. “I thought to myself, ‘What could I do to better myself if something happened like this again?’” Lee said. “I wanted to be prepared. I didn’t want to just give up.”

As a result, when his neighbor suggested they join Boy Scouts together, Lee heartily agreed. Though his decision to join was made on a whim in response to a drastic event, it became much more than a preventative measure for disaster. To Lee, it became an opportunity for personal growth and a smooth transition into the world of adulthood as he learned to fulfill the iconic Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared.”

Since his decision, Lee has invested both time and effort into scouting. When not at school, Lee has spent many hours learning how to tie knots, build fires, and administer first aid. Even now, as he prepares for life beyond high school, Lee continues to serve his community through the Boy Scouts and is working his way towards the rank of Eagle Scout, forging not only strong credentials but also a strong character that sets an example for other teens finding their way to adulthood.

His current involvement includes participation in weekly meetings, attendance of educational classes, and leadership of the younger scouts. Lee, as a senior scout, also has more opportunities to oversee troop activities. “Our troop has like this thing where we have something that’s called PLC, which is a patrol leader conference, and we just kind of discuss what kind of things we’ll be doing at the next meeting,” Lee said. This select group of scouts generally meets once a month to establish expectations and set an agenda for upcoming projects. Lee also teaches classes to some of the younger scouts to share his knowledge with them and help them advance in their ranking.

One of Lee’s most thrilling moments as a Boy Scout was when he attended a summer camp with his troop, and they had an unexpected visitor. Their campsite had been vacant for a while due to Covid-19 closures, so the landscape was overrun with vegetation, and wild pigs frequented the site. During the night, the troop was awakened by a racket. “It turns out there was a pig that kind of jumped on the back of a truck and was running through our food,” Lee recalled. “The next day, our leaders were just like, setting up traps for the pigs. And it didn’t work. But towards the end of the camp, [the other scouts and I] started making spears to hunt the pigs, and we actually got one, and we had a luau. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lee remarked.

When asked what the biggest misconception about being a Boy Scout is, Lee responded, “We don’t sell cookies.” “I think a big one is also like being able to make fire with just two sticks,” Lee added. “There is another way to make it. It just requires a lot more effort than sticks.”

Lee also brought up the topic of Boy Scout badges, which are earned by carrying out certain tasks or meeting specified requirements. ”Have you seen pictures where people have a lot of badges on their sash?”

Lee asked. “I don’t know what they’ve been doing. There’s a news story about a guy that had like 200 or more, and I don’t think it’s humanly possible unless they cut corners.”

Merit badges are typically earned over a span of a week to three months. “There’s one called personal management,” Lee said. “You just have to like, record your spendings, your earnings, and just keep a log of what you did for like three months.” Another merit badge is Personal Fitness for which scouts must take a fitness test every month for three months to track their physical progress. Other badges include hiking, emergency preparedness, salesmanship, and a variety of other educational tasks. As a result of these activities, scouts are able to explore a variety of subjects and apply them to their lives.

Even though scouting has been a fun extracurricular activity for Lee, it still required him to work hard and fight the urge to procrastinate.

“[As a Boy Scout], you need to do things to rank up,” Lee explained. “I thought I had so much time from seventh grade till now, because when you’re 12 or 13, you have no idea how fast time flies, so think I just kind of fooled around. And then COVID came and that didn’t help.”

At one point, Lee even considered leaving the Boy Scouts. “During quarantine, I wanted to quit scouting because I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere,” Lee said. “So I slacked off, and my desire to continue scouting just continued on a downward spiral. I was able to reconsider my decision thanks to the help of Kai Moriyama’s dad, a scout leader in my troop. I was really surprised that he showed genuine concern for me when I said wanted to quit. It showed me just how much I meant to the troop and that I would lose a lot of opportunities if I just hung up my hat. I’m grateful for what he did because if he hadn’t taken me under his wing, would’ve quit scouting in a heartbeat.”

Learning time management has also played a big role in Lee’s journey as a Boy Scout. “It was really difficult for me to balance school and scouting because both compete for my time. During junior year, I often found myself skipping scouting events due to the monstrous amount of homework I had from AP Chem, not to mention my other classes,” Lee explained. This challenge has only grown as he navigates his senior year. “It has been difficult to balance scouting with preparing for college and graduation because I have a lot of ‘late work’ I should have done during junior year,” Lee said. As of right now, Lee is in progress to become an Eagle Scout, the highest rank of scouting. To reach this distinguished position, Lee must fulfill several criteria, which include reaching a certain time requirement as a Life Scout, the rank preceding Eagle and managing a leadership position. “[We also] have to earn 23 merit badges. There are 13 Eagle required ones and then the rest can just be whatever. And we have to do a big service project,” Lee said. “It’s a lot of paperwork for that project because you report… your experience, what you learned from it, what you did wrong or could’ve done better,” Lee added.

This demanding process has added to Lee’s substantial workload. “What complicates things is having to plan and carry out my Eagle Project before June 7th (because that’s when I turn 18 and also near graduation). There isn’t a lot of time left to finish my Eagle project, but I also have to maintain my grades,” Lee expressed. In spite of this stress, Lee still believes that “it’s totally worth it.”

In fact, the title of Eagle Scout could come in handy as Lee applies to colleges and jobs down the road. Lee recalled that his Eagle Scout friends were favored by employers over the other applicants when they applied for jobs. “People just view [Eagle Scouts] with a higher standard,” Lee said. With this advantage in mind, Lee is eager to advance his career aspirations: “I want to go into aviation. want to be a pilot like my grandpa. I want to fly commercial or commercially. My dad says it’s best to go get a college degree first, just in case, and I agree with him.” Regardless of where Lee’s path leads, he hopes his scouting experience will give him a leg up. As Lee reflects on his time as a Boy Scout, he declares it to be the “best decision I made in my life.” On one hand, scouting has granted Lee a new perspective on growing up. “When you’re with a bunch of people that have different age gaps, I guess you kind of get to know where you have been and what you’ve seen as a younger scout and kind of reflect on how you’ve kind of become an older scout.” In addition, scouting has enabled Lee to build a stronger sense of confidence in himself, preparedness for the unknown, and perseverance for the sake of success. Timothy Shimizu, Lee’s classmate and friend, has had the privilege of watching Lee grow over the last three and a half years. “I’ve seen him, for example, take much more initiative and responsibility for not only his present concerns, but also his future, too,” Shimizu said. “Not only that, but he’s become a much more caring, humble, sincere, and overall mature person, all while still retaining his characteristic ‘abrasive’ sense of humor and playfulness.” Lee is determined to share his experiences with other scouts. Lee explained, “The whole point of scouting is to give back because you take so much experience from it. I feel like it’s not fair to just leave with all that, and not pass it down to the young ones.”