Aging Out - The Send-Off
| Category: | Aging Out |
|---|---|
| Notes: | Delivered by the Scoutmaster to a Scout (or Scouts) aging out of the troop - at their last meeting, a court of honor, or a final campfire. Swap in a real memory of the Scout's first campout where noted. Part of a series - see also aging-out-what-im-taking-with-me, aging-out-watching-them-go, and aging-out-the-door-stays-open. For a full ceremony, see /ceremonies/aging-out-ceremony. |
Tonight we say goodbye to one of our own. Not as a Scout - that part doesn't end - but as a youth member of this troop.
I remember your first campout. (Share a real memory here: the tent that wouldn't stay up, the meal that didn't go to plan, the question they asked at the fire.) I remember thinking, this one's going to be fine. I just didn't know how fine.
Here's the strange thing about being a Scoutmaster. The better I do this job, the less I'm needed. Every year the goal is for the Scouts to need me a little less. You're the proof that it works. Somewhere along the way you became the one who teaches, the one who plans, the one the younger Scouts look for when something goes wrong. There's no badge for that. It's worth more than all of them.
Leaving was always part of the plan. A troop isn't a place you stay. It's a place you pass through on your way to becoming who you're meant to be. We did our part. The rest is yours.
The door doesn't close behind you. Come back for a campout. Come back as a leader someday, if life allows it. Come back and tell us what you built.
One last thing. The Oath you said at your very first meeting was never really about this troop. It was about the rest of your life. Now we all get to see what you do with it.