Definitely appreciate that. My first scout master was genuinely Mr. Nature and taught us so much. He stuck around for a couple years after his kids went through and we all benefitted from it.

A few friends and I quit in protest a ways through life scout because our second scout master turned the troop into a nepotistic theocracy. He was a very sad pharmacist who moonlit as a wannabe drill instructor going through a major midlife crisis.

We called it when he began fast tracking kids in his church through eagle and being openly hostile to any of us who weren’t basically white Christian nationalists. Although this dude was a Catholic, it also didn’t help that the Mormon church had entirely captured the administrative structure of scouting in my area around the same time.

I saw how good it could be and then saw it turn to absolute discriminatory and racist shit within the span of about a year and a half. All of that really dispelled any of the magic for me and I was over it.

I will say that it was an early lesson in appreciating, understanding, and emulating good leaders and giving myself permission to cut ties with losers. It was also pretty amusing seeing the kids/families who stayed in the troop get all fussy when those of us who left outperformed and led more well rounded lives than their weird, coddled, and emotionally stunted children.

I like to think I got what I needed out of scouting and more lol.