Personal Narrative: Boy Scouts

I remember seeing my pinewood derby car going down the track; it was silver, blue letters on it that said sonic and black wheels that sounded like a hot wheels car going down a track. I was only 6 years old when that happened. Now I stand in front of the board representing Boy Scouts of America, ¨Congratulations, you are officially an Eagle Scout.¨ It hits me all the sudden like a wave hitting a sea wall, an 11 year journey just ended and it’s time to see the outcome.

For as long as I can remember, I feel as though I have been raised in a military environment. At a very young age my parents taught me to value discipline, manners, and to show and treat people with respect. In addition to these ‘staples’ of my upbringing, excelling in academics and on the athletic fields was where I further grew as a leader and learned to work with others to further distinguish myself from my peers. I knew based on my priorities and values that I was different from others by not only the way I carried myself but how I spoke to my peers and elders and the respect that I commanded. Perhaps those values were aided by both my grandfather’s serving in the military and my uncle attending West Point, a graduate of the class of

The Scout Executive of Southern Missouri presented me with a medal and a badge. The award recognized the accomplishments and requirements that an Eagle Scout fulfills. I accepted the award and took my seat. Once the applaud of my fellow scouts and friends died down, I thanked everybody for coming to recognize my accomplishment of becoming an Eagle Scout. I continued to express my gratitude to all the leaders and parents that made my time as a Boy Scout some of the best times I spent in the outdoors. I reflected over the many campouts I took when I was younger and did not yet possess the skills or the equipment that I have since gained. I concluded my speech by thanking the business that sponsored my final service project.

Eagle Scout Custom A cultural custom in the area where I live is for a young man to earn the Eagle Scout Award. There are many reasons why this is a cultural custom. While the young man earns this award, he learns to be a leader, learns to give service, and learns various skills he will use for the rest of his life. A young man is strongly encouraged to earn the Eagle Scout Award and many resources are made available to assist him.

Eventually, after four long, hard-working years, I achieved my Eagle Scout rank. In just one mid-summer evening, I went from one of 2.4 million Scouts, to just one of 146,400 Eagle Scouts, a little over 6% of all chartered Scouts of 2014. I reached my lifetime goal of become my family's first Eagle Scout. At the ceremony, for the first time, I had a crowd of 150 cheering for me, and not one person in the room didn't cry tears of joy for

The path to Eagle is not a journey that can be completed alone. Upon joining the Boy Scouts of America, I realized that I would need help from others to complete the monumental task of obtaining the Eagle rank. As I embarked on my path toward eagle, recognized that I would need guidance and examples of how to complete my eagle project. This realization prompted me to attend the eagle scout project of many individuals to whom I looked upon as role models. From each project, I acquired insightful advice about the responsibilities of an eagle scout while also improving the community. The service projects, which ranged from building benches for a park to restoring a church, helped me contribute by providing a beneficial service to many different

Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth groups in the nation that is was well known and popular. But in recent years is has faced a decline in members and donors as American public gradually moved to support LGBT rights. The boy scouts policy did not support these rights so they attracted a lot of attention. I read that in 2012, perhaps in an attempt to reassure conservative church groups, the BSA forcefully reaffirmed its commitment to ban openly gay youth and openly gay adults from scouting. In response, LGBT groups escalated their campaign against BSA's discriminatory policies. Activists gathered thousands of signatures on petitions calling for an end to the gay ban. They called attention to many news stories of the BSA kicking

In first grade, my first year as a Cub Scout, my pack and I spent an afternoon at a local bowling alley. After we finished up our games, we followed the manager past the hardwood lanes and through a door located at the back of the building. Surrounded by machinery, we were behind the scenes of a game of bowling. As the balls zoomed back to the players, and the machines straightened the pins for the next round, I thought to myself, “not many kids get to see the back of a bowling alley, and I got to come back here because of Cub Scouts.” This was only one unique experience I would have through Scouting.

As often as little children are, my parents thrusted me into an activity that I had no idea that I wanted to take part in. Most of these activities rarely outlive the years of barbie dolls or legos, due to a general lack of interest, or most of the time, an increase of dislike for the activity. For me, my dancing abilities withered away, as my place with the Girl Scouts of America grew stronger. Of course in the beginning they cater the activities towards the interests of little girls, but they still provided the community feeling. One year a small group of ten year olds made jewelry with the residents of assisted living. Admittedly, the jewelry crafted was made in the interest for the ten year olds, but each of us can still see the smiles on the elderly women when we handed them our finished, stylized, plastic necklaces.

One of the biggest influences in my life has been scouting. I have been in Boy Scouts for as long as I can remember, and the entirety of it has made me a better person. It has taught me many things such as cooperation, responsibility, and leadership. Scouting has lead me to some fantastic places, like Japan. I do not know what my life could possibly be like if I was never in scouting.

In 2007 me and my brother argued with our mom we didn't want too go to boy scouts. I was in 2nd grade my brother hunter was in 4th grade. Mom wanted us to do something productive instead of just watching TV all the time. We sort’ve agreed to going yet i felt anxious about it. Couple days later hunter and i packed our equipment and stuff. We hopped in the car as my mom was excited for us to go. One early afternoon we arrived there I felt a bit of nervousness and uncertainty. We grouped around the teacher including the other scouts. He introduced himself and explained the activities and stuff we were going do. Soon after, We tied knots, played soccer and explored around the place. Later on, Hunter and i set up the tent for the night at a

I am very proud of my time spent in Boy Scouts and earning my Eagle. I have been in scouting since first grade. I’ve acquired numerous instrumental skills such as leadership and time management. I have made lifelong friends that I will always be able to count on and have fun with. I have been repelling, mountain climbing, caving, water skiing, and even some crazy things like riding an ATV off a mountain slope and sailing in 20 mph winds while raining. My family now goes camping multiple times a year, has a whitewater center pass, and is amenable to go on new adventures. The memories I have made and will continue to make will be with me for the rest of my life. These activities have been so much fun and things I wouldn’t have been involved in

There are a few things I fear came across about me as I reread my essays. In my first essay I may have come across as bitter. Looking back at my experiences, I'm grateful for the Mormon Church and all the relationships I've formed and learning opportunities that arose because of it. And my bishop is a great guy. I just didn't like the expectation of following a predetermined path. I suppose that one sentiment clouded out the positives of the religion.

The first six months of Boy Scouts were dedicated to developing a leadership mindset in young men-with rigorous exercise and survival training. I remember running around the church during the first meeting, doing situps and pushups until I couldn’t breathe and doing pull ups until my arms felt heavy. During those six months, however, we were also taught more advanced survival skills, advanced first aid training and leadership skills. After the basic training was completed, we were assigned to patrols, each with six boys-it was our first campout where my patrol encountered our first challenge. We were assigned campfire duty-which meant collecting firewood and creating a pile about ten feet tall before the day was over. After scrounging around for about an hour, we were struggling to find any large amount of wood, but after looking around some more,

This past summer, I was very fortunate and lucky to be able to go to a High Adventure Camp for Boy Scouts. It was a reservation all the way in Cimarron, New Mexico, and my troop was allowed to send 12 people in total: four adults (some of the scout’s fathers) and eight scouts including myself.