Board of Review FAIL

Don't be misled by the title. I didn't really fail the Venturer Board of Review. It's just that for me, my Board of Review was a big FAIL on the part of my interviewers. I mean this is what happened:

We got introduced by our scoutmaster to the interviewers. One old chap who started by politely asking me questions about my student life, scout life and my family life. Then I was interrogated by a council member and I wasn't able to answer much because of the fact that I don't memorize my merit badge counselors from explorer to outdoorsman since it didn't really occur to me to memorize their names and all. My mistake. Next, I was interrogated by an Eagle Scout, his questions were clear and I was able to answer all questions. But then, the last interviewer was an Eagle Scout from our school and ironically, he gave me an effing hard time. REALLY. First, he asked me to do tripod lashing. Easy as pie. I was able to find some sticks, made an exact miniature replica in front of them but when I laid my weight, one of the sticks cracked and it was a big problem because the tripod wouldn't stand by itself. I had to redo it but the old chap (who, i think, is a BSP executive/commissioner) told them to make me move on. I was then asked by the last interviewer the MOST PATHETIC QUESTION I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE. He started by giving me the situation:
Interviewer: You're in a building, there's fire, what would you do?
Me: Sir, assuming I don't have ready access to liquids, I will use my Saliva to moisten a piece of cloth to serve as air filter by breathing through it and I would also stay down since smoke is hot air and hot air rises up-
Interviwer: Stop. Dabs, I mean you are outside the building.
Me: I'll control the crowd. The people would be panicking
Interviewer: Dabs, the people are not panicking, they are calm.
Me: okay, i'll try to see if the structure is already declared safe by the fire marshals and I'll help assess since it's a fire-stricken and not earthquake stricken-
Interviewer: It is the fire marshal's sole responsibility to enter the building
Me: Ok, I'm at loss for words. With the given restrictions, I can't do anything.
Interviewer: The answer? crowd control, you just didn't elaborate.
Me: You didn't allow me to elaborate!
Interviewer: it's your problem.
-Silence-
I was then asked to do diagonal lashing. I got through. But he was unsatisfied because after his first attempt (which resulted to a snapping of the twig because my lashing is very secure) he wiggled the twig violently just to pull it out. of course, the twig, having a bark and is not as even as bamboo, with the surface shaved off which results to reduced friction, the twig slid off. He babbled about how it should be tight and all the other hooplah ignoring the facts.

The verdict? I won't pass unless I perform splicing before his eyes coupled with a full illustration board set of the eight basic knots (easy) lashing (easy). Splicing takes up such a huge amount of time that I even passed an output to our scout master by 3AM.

In the debriefing, he harassed me (I think) by inadvertently pointing towards me not having time for scouting and how he can. I told him that we live a different life. I'm not just a scout; I have to juggle time with honors-class level of schoolwork, leisure and classical music. He even asked if I and my companion ever failed academically. He then said that he failed because of scouting. My opinion? that's effing stupid. I can't call myself a good scout if I can't be a good student same way he can't be called a worthy Eagle Scout if he's struggling with his gensec-level academics and even failed. We can't be blamed if his interviewers in his board of reviews in the past were, to his opinion, hellish, and that we were only dealing with something minimal. His pattern? criticism followed by comparison.

Let me give you an example:
He: Dabs, you didn't prepare.
Me: That's crap. i was in activities in preparation for this. I even went as far as still splicing at 3am.
He: you know dabs,-
Me: if you think that is minimal in comparison to your oh-so-great experiences, that's not my problem. But to me, it's as far as i can go.
He: I'm not minimizing your capabilities but-
Me: that's your usual pattern every time.
He: How many times did you do that?
Me: aside from jet lag biorhythm after-effects, only once.
He: you know dabs, in college, there are a lot more of those events, i once even slept for only 2 hours...
Me: this is pointless. I can't win in debate against people who are so convinced of themselves. I'll always seem wrong.

Then, I walked away. I just learned this morning that our scoutmaster scolded him by telling him that the problem is situational and my opinion will always be different from his. Our training and trainors are different. He was trained by some hobos. I was trained by Red Cross Zamboanga Chapter. For lashing? none other than the person who made him an Eagle Scout taught me.

In this world, sometimes, Noli Me Tangere's Pilosopo Tasio's message that sometimes we should sway with our superiors can't be applied at all times. Especially when things already become pathetic and absurd. Especially when something like a learning experience, deviate into becoming a "look who's on top of the food chain".

Scouting may be the largest and most well-established youth movement in the world, but it isn't a bed of roses. Unfathomable people, like my interviewer, exist and aside from laughing our pants off at their absurdness, we should also try to always draw a distinct line that divides our own mistakes from the mistakes of other people.