This July, for the 18th year in a row, I will spend at least a week of my summer vacation with a bunch of teenagers. In recent years, traveling on a service project with my church youth group has come into competition for my time with a high-adventure scouting trip, usually forcing me to choose one over the other each summer. This year, I will spend a week in the Appalachian region of Kentucky with a dozen church youth and a few adults helping to repair homes for those who cannot afford to handle the work or the cost themselves.
That’s one week of my summer, but in fact the past two months have been a flurry of scout meetings, merit badge sessions, leadership training, staged disaster scenarios, confirmation classes, fundraising and trip preparation, not to mention the occasional competition of who can make the most pretzels and popcorn stick to their teammates’ peanut butter-covered faces. ‘An hour a week’, Boy Scouts of America says in asking adults to volunteer. And by the time you’ve swallowed that, they’ve got you hooked.
So why do I do it? Well, I have always enjoyed teaching but did not want to do it as a profession. And basically, it seemed like a good idea at the time. At this point, looking back on my experiences, I have taken some fantastic trips that I would never have planned myself, gone places and seen things that I would never have seen, done things I would never have done. And the energy the kids have transfers to me, and inspires me to do more. But more importantly, I have been able to both take part in the development of some very talented, creative, interested youth and to witness their growth. More often than not, the visible results come later, after they have gone off to college and returned as successful adults – successful in their careers, in their families, and in their positive attitude toward life. It is sometimes frustrating to work with kids, wondering if you are ever getting anything through their thick skulls, but once you have seen the results from those who have gone away and returned as successes you begin to see it in the youth as you work with them. With many, I have created a lifelong bond that has lasted well beyond their youth.
And working with kids helps me to grow too. They constantly question and challenge what I say. In having to respond to them, I am forced to reexamine what I have said and what I believe. I have to create and innovate new methods and new games to entertain and educate them. I also have to examine the ways I communicate, to ensure that the points I make are heard, understood, and taken to heart. They also inspire me to want to learn more, so I can better respond to them and for my own personal growth.
There are definitely troubled youth, some of whom cannot overcome the challenges they and their families have created. We agonize and strategize over these, trying to figure out how we can remedy a difficult situation. Some come through it and turn out well, and others float off our radar or get into real trouble. Part of the challenge of working with youth is accepting that you cannot fix everything, that all you can do is teach as well as you know how, to care for them as much as you can, but that the rest is out of your hands. Even this is a great educational experience though, applicable to everything else in life.
To paraphrase my old scoutmaster, “My own 20 years with youth have been nerve-wracking and scar-producing and sweaty; they have been sprinkled with rattlesnakes and butterfly parents and travel snafus and smelly people and loud snorers and crummy fast food and whining kids and a million meetings to plan and endless money to raise. I think I’ll do 20 more.” So what are you doing to give back and pay it forward?
