Personal Narrative: How School Has Affected My Life

All across America, young men join together in a special organization called the Boy Scouts of America. Scouts from 1st grade to seniors in high school work toward a common goal: growing up into a functional, mature citizen and leader of the United States. I joined this great organization in 2006 as a Wolf Cub Scout and rose through the ranks to get into Boy Scouts in 2010. I didn’t know what to expect from such a widely popular, military-like group. Will I get pushed to my limit? How much can Scouts impact me? Is Cub Scouts like what others say?

Being a Girl Scout from kindergarten until the end of middle school has taught me various life skills. Firstly, it has taught me the importance of teamwork. Through various projects and activities, my troop and I have worked together in achieving any goals set by our leaders and other members of our community. This experience has also taught me life skills that can help me as an individual, such as first aid and how to deal with children. My mother was a troop leader for girls in grades third through fifth, excluding me from the eighth grade, and I acted somewhat as a co-leader for my mum when the actual co-leader was unavailable. I set up crafts and helped the younger girls with badges that I had already gotten in the

Scouts. I thought it was fun for a while, but then it got boring and I

At the age of five, I was very shy and timid, but one way I feel I have overcame this was joining the Cobb Busy Badger 4-H Club. I joined 4-H when I was five years old and have been involved ever since. Through the years of 4-H, I have made life long friends, developed public speaking skills, and most importantly I have been able to give back to the community in many ways. As a member of 4-H, I volunteer at the local food pantry, adopt-a-family during the holidays, rake leaves in the fall, and play BINGO at the local nursing home. The leadership qualities and values I have gained by being in 4-H are something I take great pride in and will use in the future to help reach my goals.

Girl Scout troop 1511 has transformed sufficiently deeper than Monday meetings, camping trips, and a time to see my friends. I joined 12 years ago, unaware of the importance it would it on me. It has become the most consistent and valuable organization I’ve been a part of throughout my life. Girl Scouts has presented me with opportunities that I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish single handedly. It’s led me to become a recipient of the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Award. Along with having the opportunity to reach out to my community through service projects and gain numerous life skills that I’m able to use on an everyday basis.

Rather than being lead by the older scouts, it was me and my friends who began to run the troop. The ones that I had looked up to had mostly left, and, almost seemingly without warning, it was our turn to lead, and mentor the new scouts. I was a troop guide, then an Assistant senior patrol leader, and then the quartermaster. All the while, I continued on my own to advance steadily through the scouting ranks. However, with these greater responsibilities, came greater enjoyment to be had out of scouting. We went to summer camps, high adventure camps, and dozens of troop-sponsored camping trips. I was nominated for, and accepted into, the Order of the Arrow, the Honor Society of Scouting. After being nominated by my Troop, I participated in a service project where we slept under the stars, followed by a period of silence and

Being in the scouts have taught me lots of things. They have taught me life skills that I can use in the real

Let's go back to 2012, my freshman year. I was a typical teenage girl except there was something different about me, I was a Boy Scout. Not only was I a Boy Scout but I was the Vice President of Administration for my Crew. You're probably thinking to yourself how the heck did I get myself into that, you're probably wondering what made me so special to not only be in the Boy Scouts but to hold such an important position. Well I found out about the Venture Crew through my cousin and school, my cousin was in the crew and when I was a freshman she was diagnosed with cancer. When she shaved her head to beat the cancer the boys were so supportive and there for her that they shaved their heads as well, I knew I had to be apart of this. So I joined. I was very quite at the first meeting,

Before the first meeting, my mother described the organization to me. When she described the cub scouts, I was excited until she revealed something I did not expect. She told me that most of the kids had joined the program as tiger cubs when they were six, but since I was an eight year old that I would be joining as a bear cub. I did not like the idea of becoming an outsider again since it

Starting as a tiger cub, scouts was something that I looked forward to each week. There was not a lot of responsibilities. I just showed up each week and the adults had something fun planned. I made lots of friends through it and we all had a good time. As we advanced we learned more and more and got more responsibility. With each rank the group of us got smaller and smaller. The last ranks were Webelos 1 and 2, they signified a transition towards Boy Scouts. The requirements were harder and we had a lot more responsibilities.

As Baden Powell once said, "A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens." Scouting has been very important to me over the past 7 years. The structure of Boy Scouts being primarily boy led, allows each scout to take initiative and lead their peers through different scenarios and work together to make tough decisions. Each individual is responsible for their own advancement; nobody spoon feeds the information to you. Over the past 7 years, I have progressed to the rank of Life Scout and have begun the last step to achieving the highest rank in Boy Scouts; the rank of Eagle Scout. These seven years have left a tremendous impact on my life. I have learned many valuable life lessons regarding dedication, leadership, and commitment throughout my scouting career. These qualities did not come easy. I faced several challenges and setbacks along the way and

When I first joined cub scouts, I was thrilled. Staying through Boy Scouts, however, was a struggle. I had to hold leaderships in the troop through the years and learned a lot from it. I had to earn merit badges with rigorous and very long time requirements. Some that I had to work on daily. Being a Boy Scout is a big time commitment and earning the rank of Eagle Scout is something that only 4% of the 28 million boy scouts in the entire world earn.

In Boy Scouts the new troop will always do a campout for the new scouts that is relatively easy for them, and is there to introduce new members to the people that are leaders and other administrators. I joined a few weeks early that winter and joined the other scouts at Camp Emerson. Camp Emerson, in the winter is a cold place with up to three feet of snow. When I took my first trip with the scouts, there was a record amount of snow. I slept in a tent that we had to dig out of the snow a few mornings, then hiked our way to the frozen lake to learn not only about surviving but prospering in the harshest conditions with little to no gear. This was one of the most insightful and miserable experience of my life, but to this day I’m proud that I thrived at the event made for boys four year my senior, and earned the respect of those same boys. While I loved the Boy Scouts it was time for my family to move out of California to a more rural community. After this momentous change I was disappointed to find no active Boy Scout community near my new location. I have continued my work with the Backcountry Horsemen, but my new chapter is far less active than my

When I was young, my older brother was in scouts and like most younger brothers, I liked to do what he did so, when I got old enough I immediately asked my parents to put me into scouts. Unlike my brother I was very strong-willed to get my project done and become an Eagle Scout, at the beginning. I knew that doing the project was very helpful for my future, it looked great on a resume for future jobs. But over time I just got tired of doing the work that is required for scouting. I wouldn’t go

In the summer your boy scout troop will camp for a week. When you are camping you get to earn merit badges. Merit badges help you to get eagle to. They teach you certain skills that other merit badges won’t teach you. In your free time at camp you can do what your heart desires that is approved by your scout master.