I am sure at some point in your academic career, that you have had to reflect on an event that "changed your life." The reason people ask this is not because the care about your personal experience, but to see wether or not you can create an anecdote (a short story). This story is to provide the reader with smooth transitions of a moment that occurs within a twenty four hour time frame. The writer provides sufficient details about the event, dialogue, and normally a lesson that was retained during or after the event.

My event in particular is my Eagle Scout award ceremony. For those of you who do not know, there is a group known as the Boy Scouts of America or BSA. This group is to teach youthful boys lifelong skills and basic survival skills. It also provides a comfortable social environment for other boys to meet and socialize. There are several ranks: Scout (lowest), Tenderfoot (second), 2nd Class (third), 1st Class (fourth), Star (fifth), Life(sixth), and Eagle which is the highest class. Of the boys that enroll in B.S.A, only two percent of them achieve the rank of eagle. The average time of completion is five to six years. However the boy can take as long as he wants, but in order to achieve Eagle, it must be done before he turns eighteen.

The ceremony I had wasn't lacking in luster. In fact, about eighty percent of my extended family came (which is close to forty people). I had come from North Carolina back to my hometown in Amsterdam, New York for the ceremony. It was a logical choice since I had attained the rank in New York before I had moved. I was sixteen, earlier than most boys to complete this rank if at all come close.

The process in which the ceremony is quiet similar to an coming of age ritual. I had to light candles from a starting point in the room as others would tell a symbolic meaning for each rank. As I came closer to the stage, I would be welcomed by fellow Eagle ranked boys, Scout Masters, and politicians to come up upon the stage among them. Then a fellow Eagle would guide me in the "Eagle's Promise" and the "Eagle's Oath" which where a set a values similar to ones established in the lower ranks, however they would be extended to country and God. They would shake my hand and I gave a small notion of my thanks. Then my parents would step on the stage, I would pin the Father's tie pin on his tie, and the Mother's pin on her shirt. They hugged me and walked off the stage.

At this point, food was prepared and distributed amongst those who came. After a continuing pattern of thanks and praise, I would finally be able to eat amongst my troop members. However at one point, I stood to go to the bathroom and lost my thought process. Standing there like a fool, I notice everyone eating and engorging their faces full of my Mother's food. I couldn't help but think that to them, this was just one more penciled in date or one more check to be mailed and forgotten. I felt a profound sense that no one would really be affected by my accomplishments and thought if no one noticed the end product or the effort to get there. Who would honestly care about the choices made after?

I could even imagine my face, many years later, curled under the covers and decaying. Evidently, after I would pass, after the eagle stopped flying, the world would go on.

August 24th, 2009