Nate Christensen seems like a typical almost-18-year-old boy. Now in his
senior year at Bingham High School in South Jordan, he plays the
trumpet in the marching band. He took a longtime friend to the school’s
homecoming dance. He loves popular music artists from Justin Bieber to
Owl City. He enjoys playing “Just Dance” on his family’s Nintendo Wii
and writes a blog in his free time. He admits that his favorite class at
school is his sports class.
But two things set him apart. One is that he’s earned 132 merit badges —
every possible Boy Scout merit badge he could earn. The other is that
Nate is autistic.
Nate's
mother, Sandy Christensen, said that Nate tests somewhere in the middle
of the autism spectrum. One wouldn’t easily guess that when talking to
him.
Autism is known for causing marked impairment in social interaction and
troubles with communication. But once you get Nate talking about
anything that has to do with the Boy Scouts of America, the conversation
flows with ease.
“Did you want to see two badges that I liked most?”
“Don’t you notice the badges that are gold framed?”
Nate’s 6-foot-3 frame might be intimidating at first, but he’s anything
but. He sits on the sofa in his living room, holding his hands together
in his lap, proudly wearing his Scout uniform and sash. He points to a
grape soda pin, a tribute to Disney/Pixar’s “Up,” talking about how
that’s actually his personal favorite even though it’s not an official
badge.
He tells things his way, which doesn’t always add up with Mom’s way, and
gets embarrassed when mentioning how much his mother records on the
family blog (“Just trust me. She writes
everything about us").
As he details his merit badge experiences — scuba diving being one of
his favorites and backpacking the hardest — a sincere, humble and
knowledgeable young man emerges.
“It’s a lofty goal for any kid,” said Brett Palmer, a neighbor who has
helped Nate earn many merit badges as both a Scout leader and merit
badge counselor. “The fact that he has autism … I don’t think anybody
knows just what an accomplishment this is.”
“He
hated (Cub) Scouts,” Nate's mother said. “He didn’t want awards, he
didn’t want people looking at him, he didn’t want any of that kind of
stuff.”
When Nate was 11, he started noticing how many badges another young man
in the ward had and decided it would be neat to have that many. It
wasn’t until he saw a
Deseret News article a few years ago about a Scout earning all of the merit badges that his goal really took flight.
Nate’s mother said that it was terrifying prospect at first.
“Nate kind of always knew he could do it,” she said. “But as the adult
trying to make sure that that happens, it’s a little harder.” She added
later that she never stopped believing in him.
Nate says he was “really glad” when he finally finished. Though the goal was daunting, he figured it was just a good idea.
“I thought that it would make me learn easily, to have all of the
knowledge,” Nate said. “I thought that it would be a good goal to have a
lot of knowledge.”
His mother agrees, calling it a perfect goal.
“It’s
a way of working with autism, because the things you learn in Scouts
are a very basic knowledge.” She cited badges about plumbing and
automotive care as examples. “It just seemed like to me just a whole
bunch of little handbooks to help him learn how to be a functioning
adult.”
All in the family
Nate’s six-year journey has been an adventure for his large family as
well. With 12 children from ages 1 to 27, Nate had quite the support
system.
“I thought that was an incredible task and feat not only for Nate but
for the entire family,” said Bob Elder, who’s been the family’s home
teacher for 18 years and helped Nate pass off some merit badges. “Not
only did Nate grow from it, but the whole family grew.”
Nate and his mother talked about how often Nate’s older brother Neal
helped him with badges. Neal and Nate and their younger sister went to
the gym together to help Nate get the rock-climbing badge. The family
was there to cheer him on as he biked 50 miles. Uncles took him shooting
and water skiing.
“The family has always been behind him,” Sandy said.
She explained that the whitewater badge was one they had worried about
the most from the get-go. The Christensens knew they’d have to make a
trip somewhere and there would have to be planning and certification.
The badge requires that a certified BSA group supervise.
Nate
Christensen, a 17-year-old senior at Bingham High School, has been
working on merit badges for six years. It's remarkable enough that he
was able to get his Eagle award despite being autistic. But Nate didn't
stop there.
The family packed up for a trip to Colorado last summer. Sandy was
pregnant with their youngest, so she waited behind with her husband
Carl. After taking the necessary class, seven of the Christensen
siblings, with older brother Neal leading, went out on the river.
“It was pretty amazing,” Sandy Christensen said. “We have video and … it
just looked like such a fun thing for them to have that opportunity.”
Nate’s siblings have also spent a great deal of time on their personal Scouting goals.
“We are firm Scouters here,” their mother said. She has been a Girl
Scout leader for 18 years. “We’ve been doing it a long time with no end
in sight,” she said.
The Christensens have put five of their 12 children through the Boy
Scout and Girl Scout programs, each earning Eagles and the Girl Scout
equivalent, the Gold Award. But, Sandy said, Nate has gone above and
beyond what she and her husband expect of their children.
Nate earned his Eagle in 2008 with the donation of eight quilts to
Primary Children’s Medical Center. He maintained his pace of earning 10
to 12 badges at each court of honor after that.
How to get 132 merit badges
When Nate decided to go for all of the badges, he sat down with his
mother to print off every merit badge requirement. They put them in a
binder, and it was a massive stack.
“Looking at that was a totally daunting task,” Sandy said. “It was very ‘oh my goodness, how do we do this?’ ”
They decided to slip some into another binder so that Nate could just
work on a few at a time. Through much prayer and taking things a little
at a time, the impossible task became possible.
Nate’s mother would mark main points in the booklet for Nate to copy
down. He took extensive notes and drew pictures. With two or more merit
badges to a binder, Nate now has a collection of 59.
“I saved all of my work so I won’t forget,” Nate said. He thumbed
through page after page of notes. There were countless illustrations
depicting safety and first aid.
The latest binder had a handwritten bracket with family members’ names
on it. The family had held a chess tournament to help Nate complete the
recently released chess merit badge that finished off Nate’s goal.
Getting to that final, simple merit badge wasn’t at all easy.
Nate Christensen, a 17-year-old senior at Bingham High School, has been
working on merit badges for six years. It's remarkable enough that he
was able to get his Eagle award despite being autistic. But Nate didn't
stop there.
“I thought I couldn’t make it, but then I just had to give a little bit
more time and try to work much harder to get all of them,” Nate said. He
quoted something he said his mom told him often as advice to other
Scouts. “Stop slacking and get on with it.”
Sandy discussed the response they’ve received from Autism News, Autism
Speaks and other parents who have children with autism commenting on
Sandy's blog, "
Twelve Makes a Dozen." Nate is a role model, a hero to these kids, Sandy said, adding that Nate’s proven that he can do anything.
“It’s just harder,” she said. “You’ve got to be willing to work hard,
and if there’s one thing I can tell you about Nate, man he is a hard
worker.”
Palmer and Elder both commented on the hard work Nate and his family put into the goal.
“As a parent, I wouldn’t have that kind of energy,” Elder said.
Palmer pointed out how often people whisper about how much the mom
really earned the Eagle or other Scouting honor. Though Nate’s mother’s
work is especially admirable, this was not a concern among his Scout
leaders.
“It still totally came down to whether he was going to do it, and it was his goal and his work,” Palmer said.
For example, Nate self-funded the majority of his merit badges.
Sandy said they were often able to coordinate merit badges to work
hand-in-hand. Nate grew corn stalks to get a plant science badge. He
sold the stalks for his entrepreneurship badge. He started a dog-walking
business for his American business badge and to earn money for more
badges.
A combination of new badges and discontinued badges, plus four
limited-time badges for the BSA’s 100-year anniversary, gave Nate 132.
The BSA currently offers 127 merit badges.
Badge after badge was finished, signed off and added to the crowded sash
to display Nate’s work. That same work helped change his circumstance.
Nate’s well aware of his limitations but said “miracles happen.”
“As I would sit down with him over the years, his abilities had improved
and increased,” Elder said about passing off merit badges with Nate.
Sandy agrees.
“He’s so much more confident. It’s like he’s growing up, coming into himself,” Sandy said. “He just knows what to say now.”
Nate Christensen, a 17-year-old senior at Bingham High School, has been
working on merit badges for six years. It's remarkable enough that he
was able to get his Eagle award despite being autistic. But Nate didn't
stop there.
Nate has plenty to say in his writing. In his blog, “
The Art of Autism,”
he wrote, “I made this blog myself and I want it to be talking about
how autism can be an awesome thing in life.” His posts are about
everything from his fears to particular badges. He also writes books. He
wants to write a Scouting series, a book for every badge.
“Nate’s
actually an amazing writer,” Sandy said. “He’s written several full
youth novel-length books, but we haven’t tried to find a publisher.
We’ve been trying to finish Scouts.”
Scouting is a done deal for Nate now, but its impact will not be forgotten.
Nate said he bore his testimony at his final court of honor about “how being a Scout will always help my life.”
“I just told them I will always be a Boy Scout no matter how old I am,” he said.
Next on his list of plans is to make a special appearance, which he’s very excited about.
Nate’s been asked to appear at the Utah Kids Club “Spook-a-palooza” event on Oct. 21 and 22 at its BSA booth.
Graduating from high school is another goal he’s continually working on.
In the meantime, you’ll find him at band practice, writing, singing
along to his favorite “JB” (Justin Bieber) tunes or walking dogs in his
neighborhood to continue his business. He’s more than “high-functioning”
— he’s busy, he’s embracing his autism and he’s confident.
“That was the thing we really wanted him to learn from this because
autism has a way of just beating you down, making you think that you
can’t be anything,” Sandy said. “The world would have you think that,
but Nate knows he can do anything now. He set a big goal, and he
accomplished it. And that is amazing.”
What started as an impossible goal for an autistic boy six years ago has helped usher the boy into a promising adulthood.
“It’s been a good journey — long journey — but a good one,” Sandy said.
Since
I have passed off all the merit badges, I would like to tell everyone
of how Boy Scouts helped me learn throughout my journey in Boy Scouts.
The first badge I would like to tell everyone is the merit badge called
Chess. It's just barely new and I managed to get that badge passed off
before my final court of honor.
I
also passed it off by doing a tournament with the family. I kept losing
at each game, but it helped me learn from those mistakes. My
eight-year-old brother, Sport is kind of good at chess, because he
learned much better than I did. The last time I played chess when I was
his age with Mom. I always kept letting Mom win, because I thought it
would be fair if girls won, because their cute. In fact, with me losing
at chess, it kept making my head hurt so much that I couldn't stand
about sacrificing each piece. But even though I kept losing at chess, it
still helps me learn how to play better. Like at Bingham High School,
during lunch time. I played a game of chess with some of my friends.
With the last game before lunchtime was over, I won against one of my
friends. That really did help me become better with all the lessons from
my Mom. Then I passed it off and got the merit badge. Later on, I will
tell all of you how I passed off the other merit badges, just like I
told you about the Chess badge. 
I
know almost all of the Owl City songs, since I've been hearing them a
lot. Every time a song starts playing, Teach asked me what song it was,
and then I tell her. We loved singing along to the songs that they
played on stage. The concert lasted from 8:30 to 10:00. After the
concert was over, we were both so happy that we had a lot of fun seeing
the Owl City concert and seeing Adam Young up close. Teach and I got
some Matthew Koma merchandises, and then we were on our way home to get
some sleep. Maybe we'll have some Firefly visions in our sleep, after
all, we saw the concert. It was really fun to talk about the most
amazing concert that I've ever been to in all my life.
