[NO. 674 \u2013 20TH YEAR OF HELPING SCOUTS, SCOUTERS, & PARENTS]<\/p>\n
Thiago, with his sister Julieta and younger brother Santiago, and their parents had just moved to our Southern California town from Guadalajara, Mexico. One of his plans in his new home and country was to be a Boy Scout. When they first moved here just a few weeks before, his father, Juan Carlos, had told him, \u201cEsto es lo que son los verdaderos ni\u00f1os estadounidenses\u2014son Boy Scouts\u201d<\/em> (\u201cThis is what real American boys are\u2014they\u2019re Boy Scouts\u201d).<\/p>\n All three kids were almost one hundred percent bilingual\u2014his parents had made sure of this before emigrating, and they were pretty good with English, too. Thiago had already enrolled at our nearby middle school and was placed in a class that had four of our Scouts. One was a newly-elected Patrol Leader. This meant I didn\u2019t have to make any \u201cSolomon\u2019s decision\u201d on what to do about a patrol for Thiago. He\u2019d already been invited to join the Raving Raccoons.<\/p>\n With guidance first from me, then his Patrol Leader, and then me again for the wrap-up, Scout rank came easy. And continuing to work with his patrol mates, Thiago had half of Tenderfoot completed the end of April.<\/p>\n After I\u2019d had good conversation with Juan Carlos, his parents encouraged Thiago to come with our troop to summer camp. What he didn\u2019t have by way of equipment we were able to fill from the gear our graduated Scouts had left with the troop for situations like this (their own idea, years before).<\/p>\n At camp, check-in was smooth, our troop\u2019s campsite was ready, and we picked tents by patrol buddies quickly. Then, into our swimsuits and head to the waterfront for our swim-tests\u2026 But Thiago hung back. When our Senior Patrol Leader asked his Patrol Leaders to gather their patrols and line up for the short walk to the water, Thiago\u2019s face seemed to blanch as he very tentatively got in like with his patrol. I figured I knew why.<\/p>\n When we got our instructions at the waterfront\u2014jump in feet-first, level off, and so on\u2014we were also told that anyone who didn\u2019t want to take the tests didn\u2019t have to. Thiago was the only Scout to take a seat on the grass beside the lake.<\/p>\n Sitting down near him, I asked, \u201cDon\u2019t feel like swimming today, Thiago?\u201d<\/p>\n He was quiet for a while. Then, \u201cI can\u2019t swim\u2026Nobody in my family can swim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHmmm\u2026 You know, Thiago, I\u2019d much rather you tell me you haven\u2019t learned how to swim ye<\/em>t; not that you \u2018can\u2019t\u2019<\/em> swim,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cOK, Andy,\u201d he replied. \u201cI haven\u2019t learned how to swim yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s OK, Thiago, you don\u2019t have to go in the water today at all.\u201d<\/p>\n I let the afternoon and the next morning pass. After breakfast and campsite cleanup on our second morning, several buddy pairs\u2014including Thiago and Billy, his tentmate\u2014asked me if they could go fishing at the space set aside next to the waterfront. Of course that was fine by me, and I decided to join them after my ASM agreed to hang out in our campsite for the next couple of hours.<\/p>\n But they weren\u2019t biting that morning, or just didn\u2019t like our bait. So I walked over to Thiago and Billy.<\/p>\n While Billy was breaking down his rod and cleaning up, I asked him, \u201cYou know, Thiago, yesterday you told me you hadn\u2019t learned how to swim yet. Today\u2019s a fine day. Sunny and warm, and not much wind on the lake. In fact, it\u2019s an almost perfect day. Do you think this might be a good day for swimming?\u201d<\/p>\n Thiago gave me a grin. \u201cSure, Andy. Today\u2019s a fine day for swimming!\u201d<\/p>\n So the three of us asked the waterfront staff if we could use the shallow (I personally hate the expression, \u201cnon-swimmer\u201d) area for about a half-hour, and of course they said okay.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long. Starting with learning to keep our eyes open underwater, progressing to push-off-and-float, adding kicks and simple arm-strokes, Thiago was swimming. Definitely not Olympic free-style, mind you, but definitely swimming.<\/p>\n That night, at dinner in the mess hall, we went around each patrol table and asked each Scout to tell a little about what he\u2019d done that day. Of course, Thiago\u2019s story was about swimming, but it\u2019s how he said it (and what he didn\u2019t say) that gave me my \u201cScoutmaster\u2019s paycheck\u201d that night.<\/p>\n \u201cI went swimming today,\u201d Thiago announced. He didn\u2019t say, \u201cAndy taught me to swim.\u201d He didn\u2019t say, \u201cI passed my Second Class swimming requirement.\u201d He simply said, \u201cI went swimming today.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s advancement.<\/p>\n Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!<\/em><\/strong><\/span> [No. 674 4\/20\/2021 Copyright \u00a9 2021 Andy McCommish]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [NO. 674 \u2013 20TH YEAR OF HELPING SCOUTS, SCOUTERS, & PARENTS] Thiago, with his sister Julieta and younger brother Santiago, and their parents had just moved to our Southern California town from Guadalajara, Mexico. One of his plans in his new home and country was to be a Boy Scout. When they first moved here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2756,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/netcommissioner.com\/askandy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHappy Scouting!<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\nAndy<\/em><\/strong><\/span>
\n(AskAndyBSA@Yahoo.com)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n