Like a whitewater river, life is fast, unpredictable and full of rocks. It has fast currents and swirling currents, and sometimes you get turned around and don’t know which way you’re going. You’ll be paddling along fine when suddenly the water gets fast and rough, but because of what you’ve learned at Scouts and from your parents, you know you have to paddle harder to keep your boat straight downstream.
You try hard to avoid rocks, but inevitably you’ll hit one, scratching your paint and sometimes leaving a dent. But it helps you to read the river better, and you’ll miss that rock the next time.
Sometimes, you come up against a fallen tree, blocking the entire river, and maybe even swamping your boat. Does that stop you? Do you give up? No, you have to get to your destination, so you suck it up and muscle your boat around the obstacle and keep going.
When you’re river paddling, you sometimes encounter two ways to go. You only have a minute or two to make a decision. Using what you see and what you’ve learned, you make a choice. That choice might be the right one, and you keep on paddling. But sometimes you make a decision, and it’s a dead end, or filled with snags. All you can do is admit you made a mistake, and go back, and take the right way.
Without all these obstacles, the river would be flat and kind of boring. Whitewater, like life, can be scary and challenging, but it’s LOTS of fun. Here’s to a life of whitewater!
Thanks to Brian Beihl, Scoutmaster Troop2, Antrim, NH via boyscouttrail.com
