Of all the things in my youth, there are only three things I truly miss: High School Drama, High School Choir and the Boy Scouts of America. Between the time I spent in the Cub Scouts, and then the time I spent in the Boy Scouts, I gave 9 years of my life to those organizations.

During the two years as a Cub Scout, I obtained all the awards I could have possibly attained, and eventually achieved the Arrow of Light Award, which was the highest award possible before bridging over to the B.S.A. When I was 11, I bridged over into Troop 11 based here in Newport News, VA, and I proceeded to move through the ranks.

Some of my favorite trips that we did over my span of scouting were the 1993 and 1997 National Scout Jamborees, hiking the Appalachian Trail, the two (and a half) summer long term campouts that I attended at Camp Chickahominy, the Coast Guard Campouts, and the Historical Trails campout which we had done. Although I usually enjoyed the campouts at Kings Dominion and Water Country USA and Blackstone, they typically were either disasterous or a little too "non-primitive" for my tastes.

During my 7 years in Troop 11, I held every position that I could, beginning with Assistant Patrol Leader and ending with Assistant Scoutmaster. Matter of fact, the only position I never had was the Bugler position. In August of 1994, after achieving 35 merit badges, the historical trail medallion (which is a pain to get), my Religious Emblem, and being inducted into the Kecoughtan Lodge of the Order of the Arrow, I topped off all of my achievements by earning the Eagle Scout award, the highest award in Boy Scouting.

Approximately 8 months later, after turning 18, I left the Troop due to differences with the leaders. Only one of them respected me as an adult and the rest of them didn't want me to be active as they said that my opinions weren't good because of my age. My problem with that was they based it on age, and not principle, and of all of the adult leaders, only I had achieved Eagle Scout. Also, the leaders were no longer ambitious to the youth's requests, and due to this, I watched as the youth suffered week after week of being told that there weren't going to be any activities because the adult leaders didn't want to sponcer them. So I parted ways with the fading Troop 11, and haven't been back since. I am thinking of returning now, as I think 4 years is enough time for everything to have radically changed. And now that I'm 22, I finally have all of the powers of adult leadership. Besides, I can't let my Order of the Arrow membership go by the wayside when it finally expires in 2002.... :)

These are the items which I can wear on my shirt while holding an adult position in Scouting. The first knot represents the Arrow Of Light award, the Second Knot represents the Youth Religious Emblem Award, and the Third Knot represents the Eagle Scout award. The Large Patch underneath is my Order of the Arrow Lodge flap. Wahunsenakah is our new lodge, as it is a lodge formed by the merger of the Kecoughtan & Chanco Lodges in this area.