An Introduction to Boy Scouts

I’d like to start out by saying that this definitely isn’t a new activity for me. I’ve been participating in BSA(Boy Scouts of America) for the last 7 years of my life, since 5th grade. I’ve never really mentioned it mainly because I just assumed that it wasn’t something that could be counted for CAS, but I was told otherwise, so here it is. Doing Boy Scouts in Sri Lanka presents a unique challenge as there was actually no pre-existing troop here for me to join when I arrived. In years past, I’ve always been a part of a troop some place or another, even in locations like Kenya. However, since there is no troop here, I take part in what is called the “Lone Scout” program. In the LS program, I directly correspond with the nearest council(in my case, Osaka Japan) and send whatever completed work I have there. My mom serves as my scoutmaster, but this doesn’t mean I’m skipping requirements or having the work done for me. If anything, everything I do falls under more scrutiny than the average Boy Scout.

My mom and I have our official scout meetings every Sunday at 11:00am, and I get dressed in my uniform as I would if I were going to a real troop. This is important as makes sure that I’m in the mindset for Boy Scouts, and not just treating at as a regular part of my day. We’ve been doing this since August of 2018, when I moved to Sri Lanka. As mentioned previously, I’ve been doing Boy Scouts for the last 7 years, and am currently a Life Scout. For those unfamiliar with the boy scout ranks, they go as follows(lowest to highest) Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star Scout, Life Scout, and Eagle Scout. Eagle Scout is easily the most well known one, as it is the highest and requires a huge amount of effort.

I’m currently in the process of working on my Eagle Scout badge, and am almost there. While there are plenty of requirements for Eagle Scout, the most famous(or infamous, depending on who you ask) is the Eagle service project. The Eagle service project is a service project that the Scout decides on, which then has to be approved by their council before starting. Once the project is completed, the Scout has to send a moderately lengthy report to their council, which goes to the BSA headquarters to be approved. This process takes months, which is unfortunate for me as I become too old for Boy Scouts in July of 2020, meaning that I have approximately 1 chance to get it right. In fact, I’m actually almost done with the physical aspect of my Eagle Scout project, and will fully explained it in it’s own blog post.

Here are some pictures from some of the things I’ve done, the first is me working on a computer for the Family Life merit badge and the second is me updating my uniform with some stuff I’ve earned.

Track and Field

With the end of the swim season at SAISA(see my SAISA post) I’ve been needing a way to keep in shape. This is difficult when there’s no high school swim team, because I live no where near a local swim club and I’ve only done swimming for the last 8 years. I really don’t know how to do much else. When presented with the same dilemma last year, I chose to do track and field. This is because the stuff that they do in track and field is great general exercise, something which I needed and still need to keep up with.

 

 

Oliver! Performances

The end of Oliver is somewhat bittersweet for me. While it is nice to be free of all the rehearsals(especially the ones that cut into class and my weekends) I really enjoyed the production as a whole. Our months of hard work and efforts culminated in the 3 performances we had on December 6th, 7th, and 8th. After finishing those, it honestly felt like there should be more. Following the conclusion of the final night on the 8th, I didn’t really feel like I was done performing all of this pretty difficult music that I had learned over a long period. I was in denial, I felt like I should perform it more. Some of the other members of the band echoed this sentiment.

The performances themselves went really well, which is good because they were our only shots to get the music right. The first night was the hardest at first, mainly because I had serious nervousness to overcome. The saying goes “The audience doesn’t have the music” meaning that the audience won’t know if you make a mistake while playing. Though this is true, a wrong note in an exposed place is very obvious and is pretty embarrassing, especially on the opening song of the entire musical. In most of the practices, I had always been unable to hit the correct opening note at the start of the first song, but I managed to do it during all 3 nights. Sometimes a little adrenaline and nervousness is a good thing while playing. Once everyone got into their grooves