Jessie

导读：美国童子军（Boy Scouts of America，简称BSA）是美国童子军运动中成立的一个民间组织，以开展儿童户外活动和发扬优良的公民精神为宗旨。

It was the summer of 1993. I was at a Boy Scout summer camp which was full of 12- and 13-year-old boys for the week.

One day several boys challenged me to a canoe sinking war， which is a game where you just do everything you can to sink the other guys canoes and the last one who stays on the water is the winner.

As I tried to push the other canoe under the water to sink it， something happened. My end of the canoe crashed into their end of the canoe and I felt a pain unlike any I had ever felt before. I shouted and looked down. The two canoes had come together and my nipple got caught between them. Half of my nipple came off and a lot of blood began to flow down my chest. I decided not to tell any of the leaders. Instead， I went into my tent， took out my first-aid case and tried to stop the bleeding. I taped my nipple back on and for the next two weeks I walked around putting pressure on it non-stop. It healed back in place.

I had a lot of other amazing times as well. Once I was sliding down a hill on a piece of wood in a Scout leaders back yard and ran over a tree he had planted earlier that year. He got so mad that he yelled， “Get out of my yard， fat ball！” which made me feel really bad， but it was a moment that really influenced me in so many ways.

Boy Scouts is all about teaching boys about life， about dealing with life， and about being prepared for anything. Its an important program that should be growing， especially in this ever-worsening world we are living in where kids are being raised so often without responsibility or sense of community.

Vocabulary

canoe n. 獨木舟

nipple n. 乳头

responsibility n. 责任

community n. 社会

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