Evolution of an Essay: Part 1

Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.

One of the most influential and important parts of my life has been my involvement in Boy Scouts.  I began scouting as a Cub Scout in first grade, and I later moved into Boy Scouts in 2007.  I have been in Boy Scouts ever since then.  I have earned the Boy Scouts of America’s highest Scouting rank of Eagle.  I am very proud of being able to reach this goal.

Boy Scouts has had such a large impact on my life mostly because of my scoutmaster.  Mr. David was the scoutmaster of my troop for almost the entire time I have been in scouts.  Mr. David is a true outdoorsman and has shared his many skills with the scouts in the troop.  He became our scoutmaster during a tough time for our troop even with his own sons being nearly finished with scouts.  In addition, Mr. David continued his role as the troop’s scoutmaster many years after his sons had left for college.

The skills that Mr. David has taught me throughout scouts will be valued for the rest of my life.  He has taught me how to be a good leader, how to work with my fellow scouts as a team, how to communicate and interact with people in various situations, and many more.  Mr. David provided me with great experience of these skills starting many years before most other boys learn them.  I began learning these skills in fifth grade, while most of my friends wouldn’t truly experience this until their first job in high school.  Because of this, I have had the opportunity to work on and practice these skills for years before I would actually need to use them.

One specific event that I think of is a troop campout to Village Creek.  After a long day of canoeing, we came across a large sandy bank with plenty of room for all of the troop’s tents, and everyone thought we had found the perfect spot to park the canoes and set up our campsite.  Meanwhile, Mr. David was rowing across the river.  He was not gone for long, but we hadn’t gotten too comfortable before Mr. David suggested that we move to a spot across the river to set up our campsite.  He said we would have been in a bad position if it started raining and the river flooded, so we trusted his instincts.  As everyone began rowing across the river, it started to rain.  I don’t think I will ever see as much rain as I did at that moment.  We set up our campsite on a hill about a hundred yards from the river and tried to go to sleep in our soaked tents.

The next morning, the rain had stopped and the sun was gleaming through all of the raindrops on our tents.  As we stepped out of our tents, we saw water at the edge of our campsite.  All of the land around us had been flooded except for the top of the little hill we were standing on.  If Mr. David hadn’t thought ahead as a boy scout should, we would have been in serious trouble.

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