On the path of becoming an eagle scout - AN NHIEN

On the path of becoming an eagle scout, I have to take a lot of tests and hardships just to get to it. The first thing I have to do is get twenty-one merit badges. I can still remember the first time I went to a merit badge camp. It was really fun.

I had to wake up really early in that day. I was very excited; I was going to get my first merit badges. I ate a little bit of breakfast and headed of to the meeting area. My dad and I were there first, we waited a little while for everyone to come and we were on our way. We stopped at a supper market to buy lunches; My dad and I bought a drink and everyone else had a little time refreshing themselves. I slept through the whole journey so I didn’t know how everything was like on the way. When we arrived, I woke up. That place is huge. There are trees everywhere. And all the cabins and houses are pretty far from each other. I started my tent right when we got off to our campsite. It was easier than I thought I would be. We went out for the grand tour the late afternoon to see how the camp looks like. I took swimming, first aid, leather work and rifle so I had to remember all of those locations. The schedule started at 8:00 am but I woke up really early because I slept really early in those days.



We had breakfast at 7:00 am and after lunch, I went off to rifle. It was an easy trail, just a really long, down hill path. I like rifle the most because I got to handle a real gun. I was pretty good at it, and I would finish earlier in that week if my gun hasn’t screwed up. After rifle is first aid, now this is a long way. I had to run uphill for over one and a half miles. This class is really easy because I have already learned everything at home; this class is an easy shot. Next was swimming. This class is the most easiest because they just taught you basis techniques and how to survive; everything else was a piece a cake. After lunch was rank studying. This is not a merit badge class, but they helped you to improve your rank. I nearly finished of tenderfoot rank thanks to this class. The last was leather work. This is the class that I despised the most, because it needed good hand skill, and I am most certainly not one. But I manage to pull myself through this class. And there is something that is really weird: every teenagers that taught me were all younger or as old as me. In the end, it was a success, I got all four merit badge. I made some new friend in my troops when I was on camp, too. I turned out that everything worked out nicely.


I learned a lot from this camp. I really want to go back next year to earn more badges and to learn more cool new stuffs.

An Nhiên - tức Ti Nô