Well then. I'm there. I'm an Eagle Scout. After four years of community service, merit badges, camp outs, leadership...I've done it.

...

It hasn't really hit me yet. XP

But seriously, after looking at Eagle as the goal, the thing to strive for, it's hard for me to get used to finally being there. I suppose if I recount all my achievements, it might make it easier for me to accept.

I started out later than everyone else. I didn't do Cub Scouts, and it was only in the March of my sixth grade year that I joined. It was great: everyone there was willing to help out, willing to answer questions. In my Troop, no one was indifferent to other people's needs. I have my Troop to thank for my desire to stay in Scouting.

And the requirements. I was competitive, and when I saw those requirements in the back of my Scout Handbook, I had to fill them up. I quickly began advancing, making Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class in the space of three months. I have to admit that some of what I learned, I forgot. I was too busy rushing through my ranks to actually learn stuff.

And I was a Patrol Leader, too. I suppose most people wait till they're older to go for such a position, but I was thrown into that almost immediately after I joined. I was chosen to lead the other new scouts, most of which were a year younger than I was. Our patrol was the best in its short lifetime (we named it the Dragons), and it wasn't just because of me. Everyone had my same competitive nature, everyone wanted to advance. We all had ambitions. Many of these people later dropped out, or stopped coming; school caught up to them.

I stayed as a Patrol Leader for another term, and after a year I passed the torch to my Assistant Patrol Leader, someone who did even better than I did. Meanwhile, I took another position within the Troop, Chaplain's Aide. As Chaplain's Aide I was in charge of everything religious, including saying grace before meals during camping trips. But I also was responsible for making monthly reports about upcoming religious holidays. I really enjoyed my job: as one of the few (if not the only) Buddhist(s) in the Troop, I had to learn every other religion. Looking back, I suppose it made me religiously tolerant and aware; I understand now what's going on when one of my friends doesn't eat a particular meat product or at all, and I know what they're talking about when they mention "Lent" or "Ramadan".

After my term was over, our patrol, the Dragons, was "disbanded". The Dragons had experienced an extremely successful year and a half, but according to tradition the new scouts had to be split up and feeded into the three senior patrols. I found myself in the Billy Goats, with a couple of former fellow dragons.

Camping was excellent, and easily my favorite part of Scouts. It was really more about hanging out with friends than anything. We didn't really focus on learning wilderness survival skills or things like that, but we unwittingly ended up wiser after every trip. We learned important life lessons too.

My favorite outing of the ones we went on--I actually have two--are desert camping and rafting. You've never really lived until you've faced six-feet high walls of water in Class Four rapids. And as for my other favorite activity, I enjoy just being in the desert...nothing but dunes and rocks all around you, the blue sky above...you feel incredibly small, but energized at the same time. It's the closest I've ever felt to nature. I definitely plan to visit the desert as much as possible when I'm an adult.

I have so many more experiences, but ultimately the most memorable was during a weeklong summer camp on an island off the coast of California. My dad and I were canoeing--he had come along to chaperone on this trip--and we got caught in a current. The shore of this island happened to be surrounded by a thick mass of seaweed, and we had to fight both these and the current. It took almost an hour to get back to shore, but looking back, I feel like it was great.

And finally, the trip I took this February, to Japan (you can see an entry about it if you look back a few months on my blog). I met thirty other scouts and adults, all of whom were hardcore--all of us were Eagle or Life scout (Life is the second highest rank in scouting), and most were Senior Patrol Leaders. I had the new experience of going on a Scouting activity with girls (Venturers, which are co-ed), and it actually wasn't all that different...sort of like the camp I went to last summer, with a college-esque atmosphere. I had a great time...I can't help laughing every time I recall us on Mount Fuji, running around in swimsuits and pelting snowballs at the Scoutmaster. Haha...good times.

July 9th. That's the day I became an Eagle Scout. The Board of Review actually wasn't as bad as I thought. I went in, shook hands, sat down, and just talked. I had thought of it with apprehension, like an interview for an internship, but in fact, I acted like I was talking to my friends. I just relaxed, and everything went smoothly. Far from the little kid I was at eleven, who got tongue-tied at the thought of talking to adults. I've grown up...and Scouting might have something to do with it.

Is this it? Am I done with Scouting? Lots of people in my troop have dropped out after becoming Eagle--it's great to have it on college apps, and after getting it, there's really no real reason to stay. But what will happen to new scouts coming in? I remember when I was a Tenderfoot. The senior scouts helped me through my first steps as a Scout. They're all in college now. They never dropped out. They stayed, and even those who didn't made Eagle were more than willing to mentor younger and more experienced scouts until they graduated and legally became adults. And what about those I met on the Japan trip? One of them had 106 merit badges, another had 50, as well as several Eagle palms, ranks you can get beyond Eagle.

I think I'll do the same. I'll stay in scouting, keep getting positions, tutor incoming scouts--and get a few merit badges while I'm at it. After all, I'd be doing those scouts who mentored me a disservice if I didn't. I want to be like them. Scouting's not over for me. Not by a long shot.