Content Warning: This article mentions a threat of serious physical violence in the July 22, 2018 section and the death of a family member in the September 30, 2023 section. Please skip those sections if you are sensitive to those topics.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023, 8:16 PM
Eagle At Last!

I can’t believe it. I have finally done it. Ten years of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent; ten years of on my honor, doing my best, to do my duty, to God and my country, to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight; and ten years of friendship, service, campouts, coaching, getting coached, and building my character have all culminated in this moment. Today is a big day. Not only is today my eighteenth birthday, a milestone in itself, but I have achieved the highest rank of the Scouts BSA (formerly “Boy Scouts”) program: Eagle Scout. Let me take you on a journey of these last ten years. Hop in the time machine and buckle up for the ride because this journey is quite a long one.

September 2013
Boy by the Cannon

My road to Eagle Scout began through an old friend who introduced me to the Cub Scout program. “That’s so cool,” my seven year-old brain must have thought; I asked my dad to sign me up for Cub Scouts. My dad registered me as a Cub Scout of local Pack 26 of Medford, NJ.

My first Cub Scout meeting took place on October 4; it was the first Friday night of the month, so as per usual, the adult leaders of Pack 26 organized a monthly Pack meeting. This would be my introduction to Scouting. Because it took place ten years ago, I do not recall the activities and discussions that took place, but I do recall that nothing made me want to turn away from the Cub Scouts.

Over the next three years and four months, the Cub Scout program introduced me to camping (my first trip was early on, taking place between October 19 through October 20); knife safety, which I learned the hard way while carving soap; first aid, which I had to apply when I learned knife safety the hard way; and a variety of other skills that make Scouting complete.

Biweekly meetings with my den, a group of Cub Scouts who were in the same grade, sharpened my skills while checking off rank-up requirements one by one. Soon enough, I completed the rank of Arrow of Light, the Cub Scouts’ highest rank. I was ready to become a Boy Scout.

Sunday, February 26, 2017, 1 PM
The Bridge to Boy Scouts

The time had come for me to “cross the bridge” from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts (Scouts BSA was still referred to as “Boy Scouts” until March 1, 2019, upon the introduction of girls and other gender identities), which involved me and the other Arrow of Lights crossing a ceremonial — but literal — wooden bridge with twelve planks, each with one point of the Scout Law written on it, at the annual Arrow of Light Blue & Gold Banquet in front of my family and Cubmaster.

Over the previous month and a half, I had searched for a troop to join. I had three options in my hometown of Medford: Troop 48, a more regimented troop that stressed camping as frequently as possible; Troop 20, a more casual troop that had fewer camping trips and stressed rank advancement less; or Troop 26, the perfect middle ground of the previous two troops. This was the troop that the majority of the other Arrow of Lights had already decided on joining, and the troop that my fourth grade buddy Craig, who is three years older than me, was already a member of.

Although I carefully weighed my options, the choice was obvious. After walking across that bridge, two Scouts from Troop 26 removed my green and red checkered Arrow of Light neckerchief and replaced it with their solid green troop neckerchief. I was now officially a Boy Scout.

Monday, February 27, 2017, 7 PM
Fresh New Scout

My first meeting was a rude awakening to the Scouting program. I now had to transition from monthly casual pack meetings to weekly serious troop meetings. And did you really just forget your Scout Handbook, dumb eleven year-old me?

Serving as my troop guide was Matt, a laid-back Scout who would later serve as my troop’s Senior Patrol Leader for a year before becoming an Eagle Scout. Matt got the other new Scouts and me through the first half of the Scout rank in one night (see the image below for all of the requirements).

As casual as the meeting should have been, I was stressed out of my mind because I had forgotten my Scout Book. An hour and a half later, right after the meeting wrapped up, my dad and I argued about me leaving my Scout Book home.

The argument got so heated that for a little while, I didn’t want to be a Boy Scout anymore; I felt that I wasn’t cut out for it. I decided to push on, and two weeks later, on March 13, I achieved my first rank: Scout. After a camping trip to Camp Inawendiwin on April first and second, I prepared for my first Scout Summer Camp.

Sunday, July 16, 2017, 3:30 PM
Yawgoog ’17

After a six hour drive from Medford, NJ to Rockville, RI, I arrived at Camp Yawgoog Scout Reservation for the first time. I came prepared to spend a week in the woods. With the help of my parents, I prepared a footlocker for everything I would need. Sleeping bag? Check! Clothes and a swimsuit? Check! My uniform? Check! A mesh net to keep mosquitoes from biting me in every direction while I sleep at night? Check! A consistent can-do Scout spirit? Well … umm … I guess that I left that behind at home.

When I arrived at my campsite, Jim Bridger (all campsites in my area of Camp Yawgoog were named after historical figures), I set up my sleeping bag and mosquito net, and when the sun went down, I went to bed.

There are only a few dreams that I can remember. Strangely, in vivid detail, I remember that I dreamed of farting in front of my crush (at the time) and while her family laughed, she didn’t find the humor in it, and I was so embarrassed.

Waking up from such an awkward dream, I didn’t have the can-do mindset to get me through the day. Of course, that day just had to be the most brutal. For starters, breakfast and lunch were rushed. After breakfast, the day started with an early morning swim test.

Camp Yawgoog does not allow people to swim in their lake unless they pass the Scouts BSA swim test: two twenty-five yard laps of any forward stroke, one twenty-five yard lap of breaststrokes, one twenty-five yard lap of backstrokes, and five seconds of floating after being fatigued. Eleven year-old puny me, just seventy pounds of almost no muscle, barely finished.

After lunch, I had to start Camp Yawgoog’s New Frontier program, which my Scoutmaster mandated me to take as a first-year Scout. The best way to describe the New Frontier program is a three day hell of learning various Scout skills and checking off rank advancement requirements while getting bit by mosquitoes in every direction for nearly fourteen hours.

To compound the stress, at 5:00 PM sharp, Camp Yawgoog also called a fire drill. By the end of the day on Tuesday, I wanted to go home. However, that night’s campfire raised my spirits.

That day, I got to know Adam, who was three years older than me. Adam was in charge of the campfire that night and needed someone to aid him.

He chose me, and I felt honored. As the sun went down, we collected kindling and then set it on fire.

The blaze was significantly larger than the fires of the previous two nights, astonishing my dad, who watched the fire come to life.

The final day of New Frontier on Wednesday wasn’t too challenging, and the can of Arnold Palmer iced tea that I got from Camp Yawgoog’s trading post to celebrate my completion of New Frontier couldn’t taste sweeter.

Spending the rest of the week learning mammal studies and basketry gave me a chance to slow down and relax. The New Frontier program had propelled me so far forward in my rank advancement that at the next weekly Troop 26 meeting on July 31, I earned the rank of Tenderfoot, the second rank in Scouts BSA.

My enjoyment of Scouting wouldn’t last long, though. As my sixth grade year ramped up that autumn, I felt less and less motivated to show up to meetings and progress. I was just about ready to quit by the end of November, but I knew that I couldn’t just throw in the towel so easily.

Sunday, July 22, 2018, 3:30 PM
Lurking Menaces

Content Warning: contains a threat of serious physical violence.

Keep in mind that achieving the rank of Eagle Scout is not easy; I defend my decision to include sensitive topics to share both my successes and my hardships to present the full story and to not suggest that the road to Eagle Scout is completely smooth and easy.

Now a Second Class Scout, the third rank in Scouts BSA, I returned to Camp Yawgoog for the second time. My experience this year was interesting, to say the least. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the archery range was the least safe part of Camp Yawgoog, and I idiotically took Camp Yawgoog’s Archery merit badge class.

What could go wrong when you leave a bunch of pre-teens unsupervised in a line to wait to practice archery? The counselors teaching the archery class didn’t seem to think this through.

On Tuesday, two Scouts thought I had cut in line. They began acting aggressively towards me, and one, behind my back, brandished his pocket knife.

Although his threat was most likely empty and a joke between those two Scouts, it is still scary to know that I was oblivious to the knife. My dad, with nothing else to do, had just shown up at the archery range to watch me practice.

My dad promptly yelled at him before I could even turn around and see the knife. I left the archery range that day disturbed, but later brushed it off, with the realization that not all heroes wear capes.

Saturday, March 2, 2019, 1:30 PM
Full Circle I

Now a First Class Scout, I could finally take my journey full circle for the first time by completing Den Chief training and registering as a Den Chief. As mentioned earlier, Cub Scout Dens meet biweekly, and a Den Chief can serve as a critical aide to a Den’s adult Den Leader.

On March 31, I met my Den. The Den Leader planned a nature walk at a local park and asked me to tag along. The Cub Scouts, who were in the first grade at the time (and are now in the sixth grade), were energetic and excited to meet me.

Over the next year, I served my role well. I planned fun activities to help the Cubs get through rank advancement requirements. My favorite Den meeting was on December 11, 2019; I had planned two fun activities.

The opening activity was a dart throwing game, but with small balls (as a Den Chief, I needed activities like these to incentivize productivity by stimulating the Cubs’ six or seven year-old brains), and another was my recreation of the Plinko game from the popular daytime television show, The Price is Right, but modified to complete one requirement that stated that the Cubs needed to learn how to count money using coins by playing a game.

When a Cub earned money, they had to correctly give themselves the right amount of change in the fewest coins. When a Cub lost money, they had to correctly break a larger value coin (such as a quarter) for smaller value coins to pay off their dues.

My time of being a Den Chief, however, was cut short by the declaration of a national emergency regarding the developing Coronavirus pandemic by our then-president, Donald Trump, on March 13, 2020.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 7 PM
Scouting From Home

When our government shut down the nation for the foreseeable future, my troop decided to take two weeks off. The first week, the other Scouts and I focused more on trying to learn virtually, and during the second week, on March 24, my troop called an emergency Patrol Leader Committee (PLC) meeting.

PLC meetings usually take place on the first Monday of each month, and are used to plan upcoming meetings, activities, and camping trips for the month.

The PLC comprises the top youth leadership in the troop: the Boys’ Senior Patrol Leader, the Girls’ Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders for both boys and girls, the Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, and Patrol Leaders.

A patrol is a subgroup of scouts within the troop, typically organized by age or rank. From January 2019 until January 2021, I served as Patrol Leader, so I almost certainly couldn’t miss this. In this PLC meeting and the next few, we planned virtual activities.

After almost four months of virtual meetings, the PLC met virtually on July 6 to discuss the possibility of returning to in-person meetings. As a PLC, we ultimately decided on returning to in-person meetings.

I felt that the decision to return in person was too soon, even though we would be outdoors and safely distanced from each other for ninety-five percent of the time. For all I know, I may have been the only person in the PLC who was not in favor of returning to in-person meetings.

On one of the hottest days of the year, July 13, as per the decision of the PLC from the week prior, my troop met in person for the first time since school closed outdoors in the blistering heat to build mini rockets.

Never mind that, I guess; during Camp Yawgoog in 2019, which I enjoyed so much more than the previous two years, another Scout’s weather app showed the temperature peaking at ninety-six degrees on the first day.

Throughout the following week (July 20 through July 23), safely from my home, I virtually attended Camp Roosevelt, which is located in Elmer, NJ. My experience truly felt like a Summer Camp experience despite being behind a computer screen.

I learned art and animation, watched Camp Roosevelt’s live-streamed campfires, participated in some of their wacky challenges, and even put on a magic show for Camp Roosevelt’s weekly talent show.

However, not only did the PLC decide to start returning to in-person meetings, but they also brazenly decided to return to camping trips. On August 15, I, along with many other Scouts, set up tents at Bunning Field, a baseball field in Medford; went canoeing; and slept the night outdoors. The only significant procedural change was that Scouts had to sleep by themselves or with a family member, but not any non-sibling Scout.

Monday, January 18, 2021, 7 PM
Full Circle II

As soon as my term serving as a Patrol Leader ended, my term serving as a Troop Guide began. Being a Troop Guide was also full circle for me; I remembered how much Matt helped me in my first few months.

A Troop Guide’s job is to serve the newest Scouts for their first year. By serving them, I mean helping them check off rank advancement requirements, teaching them skills, and leading by example.

My work was minimal at first, considering the limitations of physical distancing, but I finally got the full Troop Guide experience when I started the tenth grade. Although I was still masked, I could begin to work individually with new Scouts and get within six feet of a new Scout when necessary without having to worry about contracting the Coronavirus as much.

I officially served as a Troop guide until September 18, 2023, but I began pulling myself away from my troop the previous May in preparation for becoming an Eagle Scout. I like to call it “Eagle Scoutitis,” the Scouts BSA equivalent of “senioritis.”

Friday, July 30, 2021, 9:30 AM
Driven to Drive

For four days prior, I had sat behind my computer screen attending Camp Roosevelt virtually again. On this day, however, I got the opportunity to visit Camp Roosevelt in person. My visit was pretty awesome.

I signed up to take Camp Roosevelt’s ATV class. Being the only Scout of at least fifteen years of age who lived locally (some older Scouts called in from Texas and California), I got a private lesson.

I have ridden horses since the age of nine, and to me, driving the ATV was just like riding a horse, except the ATV doesn’t have a mind of its own and therefore will listen to your commands one hundred percent of the time.

Early on, I felt the learning curve of driving an ATV. In the first hour, I ran over a campfire (thankfully not burning) and ran into a tree, but I quickly got better and better. Later on the day, I drove laps around an open field, weaved through cones, and even learned how to drift. By the end of the day, I had made donuts in the soil.

Saturday, July 23, 2022, 10:45 AM
Goodbye, Yawgoog

Like Camp Roosevelt, on July 23, 2022, I said my final goodbye to Camp Yawgoog. For the past week, I had spent a lot of my day in a small boat sailing class, while also taking geology and environmental science.

Aside from my return to Camp Yawgoog, my earliest Eagle Scout Project plans forming, and the completion of the Personal Management merit badge, in which I had to log my finances for thirteen weeks, and the Family Life merit badge, which required me to do at least five chores on as many days as possible for ninety days, nothing else noteworthy occurred in 2022.

There was something so blissful about getting to return to Camp Yawgoog one last time. This wouldn’t be the last time that I would feel the bliss of saying goodbye to a Scouting experience.

Friday, April 14, 2023, 10:30 PM
Sand Camping

The first day of my final camping trip had arrived. At 8:00 AM, my dad and I left home, heading south. All of the other Scouts had spring break that week, and a camping trip is usually planned each year for their Spring Break. Unfortunately for me, that meant missing our school’s Day of Silence and Prom.

In honor of the Day of Silence, from 8:30 AM until our arrival at 11:45 AM, my dad and I awkwardly said nothing to each other in the car. At 12:00 PM, I found a quiet spot at my campsite and shouted, “May peace prevail on Earth,” to break the silence, just as I did for our school’s Day of Silence in 2022.

After I helped my dad set up his tent, I switched my black and rainbow clothing out for my troop’s green T-shirt and then set out to find my troop. My final camping trip took place at a spectacular location: the middle of an island.

It wasn’t just any island either. I was standing on the shores of Assateague Island, located just off the coast of Maryland, an island preserved for its beauty and home to a population of wild horses.

I had never camped on an island before, and could there be a better way to round off my camping experience with such a beautiful campsite?

That night brought me one of my core memories. We talked about anything and everything, the other Scouts gossiped about exes and classmates that they hated, and we all laughed and laughed the night away.

I can still vividly picture in my mind us all sitting on the beach, less than one hundred feet away from the Atlantic Ocean, illuminated only by the moon and one small lantern, with nothing but a beach towel and sand below us, having one of the greatest moments in my Scouting life.

Friday, August 4, 2023, 12 PM
The Eagle Scout Project

Because I suffer from Celiac Disease, I have to visit the Philadelphia office of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to see my specialist doctor annually. This was just supposed to be one of my annual check-ups.

My doctor asked me about Scouting, and I mentioned my wild Eagle Scout Project idea of hosting an all gluten-free food drive. This idea was originally formulated in my mind in June 2022, but I hadn’t secured a beneficiary yet.

My doctor left the room and returned with the other two CHOP Celiac Team members in the office that day – one of them was another specialist doctor – and their intern. They introduced themselves to me and assured me that they could be my beneficiary, taking in the food that I collected.

Shortly after, I also began planning with the Food Bank of South Jersey. Near the end of August, they agreed to serve as a second beneficiary for me.

Five days and one phone call to discuss logistics later, the CHOP Celiac Team signed off as my beneficiary. Following its completion and the approval of the adult leaders of my troop, I submitted my Eagle Scout Project proposal to the Garden State Council on August 17.

Garden State Council approved my proposal on August 24, and I prepared for a workday on August 31. That being said, there was one major hiccup.

On August 29, a family member tested positive for the Coronavirus. I couldn’t bring any volunteers to my home for August 31 anymore. To start my project on time and to test whether I could effectively lead other Scouts, I instructed my dad to build one donation collection box after he got home from work on August 30. On time, I put out my first donation collection box near my mailbox on the afternoon of August 31.

Finally, on September 9, some of the other Scouts in my troop, their parents, my cousin, and my parents all worked together to complete two tasks: fold all of the 250 flyers that I had just printed at my local library and decorate nine more donation collection boxes with posterboard and flyers.

Yet, just one week later, I would receive the most shocking news of my life: my beloved dog, Emmi Giulia, who was like a sister to me, was dying of liver cancer and had a zero percent chance of surviving.

Saturday, September 30, 2023, 12:58 PM
Sunshine Before the Storm

Although my motivation was killed by the news, I arrived at the United Methodist Church in Medford an hour before all of the volunteers showed up to set up. Through one of the adult leaders in my troop, I secured a room at the church to sort food. I set this day up to be a big one, inviting aunts, uncles, and a wider range of Scouts.

Another Scout, the son of the leader who helped me secure space at the church, helped me set up. At two o’clock, the rest of the volunteers showed up, and we got to work sorting. In the end, we had twenty-nine boxes.

As I left the church, the clouds mysteriously moved out of the path of the sun’s rays for a minute. For the first time all day, the sixty-eight degree outdoor air felt warm on my skin.

After wrapping up, my aunts and uncles came home with me to celebrate with pizza. My dog, Emmi Giulia, exuded energy despite lacking energy for the previous week. At 9:20 PM, I was sitting on my patio when my dad opened the door and called me inside.

“I think Emmi’s having a seizure,” my dad exclaimed with fear in his voice. At 9:21 PM, Emmi collapsed on the kitchen floor and took her final breath right as I came inside. Although her battle with liver cancer was supposed to last much longer, it came to an end unexpectedly early.

Considering how rapidly her health deteriorated, I realize now how lucky I am that she lived until the end of the day. Had she died in the morning, I would have had to cancel the sorting. Had she died in the early afternoon, I would forever feel guilty about being away from home.

Monday, October 2, 2023, 1:55 PM
After the Storm

I was home from school taking a mental health day, so my parents suggested delivering ten of the twenty-nine boxes to the Food Bank of South Jersey. Drowning in my grief, I felt like my parents were dragging me there.

I tried to hide the pain as I greeted two volunteers. I pretended to be happy as I smiled for a photograph. For thirteen days following Emmi’s death, I sat in sorrow, trying to juggle my grief with my school work and Eagle Scout work.

I was unmotivated to do either during that time. As much as I wanted to quit then, I knew that I couldn’t stop now. I was too close to being done to quit.

The joy of Spirit Week at my school, beginning precisely thirteen days after Emmi’s death, alleviated the pain. On October 20, I delivered the remaining nineteen boxes to CHOP in much better spirits than I had been in before Spirit Week.

Monday, November 20, 2023, 7:15 PM
The Final Mile

With the other Eagle Scout requirements out of the way, I was finally able to have my final Scoutmaster Conference. These conferences must occur once before each rank advancement.

My Scoutmaster was relatively new to my troop, so he didn’t have many questions for me. He did, however, take the route of asking me about my life in Scouting prior to his leadership in my troop.

When I finished my Scoutmaster Conference, I asked him to sign off on my Eagle Scout Project report, a critical step in certifying its completion. Over Thanksgiving Break, I took some time to relax, and afterward, I hit the ground running.

On November 27, I completed my Eagle Scout Application and my Life Purpose Essay, a three hundred to five hundred word essay that all Eagle Scouts have to write that details what the Eagle Scout plans to do for the rest of high school and in their career while highlighting how Scouting’s values will be a part of their life.

Having finished everything that I would need to become an Eagle Scout, it was time to submit it all to the Garden State Council.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023, 4:55 PM
Certified!

I left our campus’s Main Building at 3:30 PM to head to the Moorestown Library. I needed a quiet space to photocopy my application and organize my papers. I was both energetic and anxious – was my application good enough?

While at the Moorestown Library, I said hello to one classmate and waved hello to two others. Seeing familiar faces gave me the boost of confidence that I needed. At 4:15, I left for the Garden State Council office.

Arriving at 4:40, I handed over my binder to the council representative stationed at the front desk. Applications usually take a week to pass through Garden State Council, but because the representative wasn’t occupied and had only half of an hour left in her shift, she reviewed my application right there.

By 4:55, she had finished reviewing my application. With glee, I watched her pick up her black ballpoint pen and etch her signature into my application with the date 11-28-23. I had done it. All that would be left would be to wait for my Board of Review.

Like a Scoutmaster Conference, each rank advancement has a Board of Review, which is typically a Scoutmaster Conference but with multiple adults – except for the Eagle Scout Board of Review.

Sure, just like a standard Board of Review, I get interviewed by multiple adults, but unlike the others, this one is long and will determine whether ten years of hard work has paid off or if ten years of hard work will go to waste. I often describe it to others as “a job interview on steroids.”

Although the only way in which I would likely fail would be if I insulted a Board of Review member, any possibility of failure is intimidating to me. On November 30, I got a date for my Board of Review: December 12, the day that I would turn eighteen years old.

On December 11, I participated in a troop meeting one last time to say goodbye. My Scoutmaster began the meeting by announcing that I would be turning eighteen years old on the next day, as well as wishing me good luck on my Board of Review.

I spent a lot of the meeting helping a new Scout with some of the Scout – the first rank – requirements. We checked off requirements, just like Matt had done with me when I was new, and like I used to always try to do when I was a Troop Guide, I sent him home with requirements to complete at home before next Monday.

I told him that if he did his work, he could achieve the rank of Scout by next Monday. Seeing a nearly empty requirement sheet for the rank of Scout made me realize that the road to Eagle Scout all starts somewhere, and perhaps, if he is diligent enough in his work, he can be an Eagle Scout by 2030.

At 7:23 PM on December 12, I walked through the side door of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Medford, NJ. At some unspecified point, the Board of Review committee began reviewing my paperwork. At 7:36, my troop’s Advancement Chair called me back to a Sunday School classroom.

I recited the Scout Oath and Scout Law, and then answered all of their questions about merit badges, my experience as a Den Chief, and college. Much sooner than expected, at 8:08, they sent me back to my parents to confer. I paced back and forth, anxiously awaiting their decision.

At 8:14, the Advancement Chair called me back to the classroom and told me to bring my parents. After the long walk, they told me that I became Troop 26’s 148th overall Eagle Scout – dating back to the 1970s, and the 46th Eagle Scout of the Pine Hill District in 2023.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023, 8:16 PM
Conclusion

I’m eighteen years old now, so for more than half of my life, the principles of Scouts BSA have enveloped me, guided me, and taught me how to be a good person. Those values have helped shape my character, even though sometimes, my immature behavior would suggest that I am the antithesis of an Eagle Scout more often than not.

The requirements also provide unique benefits. One is to track finances for thirteen consecutive weeks while learning about the different types of payment cards — debit, credit, and charge cards — and the benefits and drawbacks of savings, long-term stocks, and day trading.

Another requirement is twelve consecutive weeks of physical activity. In that time, I got much stronger physically and I learned how to plan physical activity to be regimented and consistent in getting a daily dose of exercise.

A third long-term requirement is to do daily chores for as many days as possible out of ninety days. It forced me to work every day, except for holidays and the week I was at Camp Yawgoog (this was in 2022), preparing me for a real job.

Smaller requirements reinforce essential skills. As an Eagle Scout, I am expected to have learned how to save your life in a million different ways; my rights and responsibilities as a United States citizen, which apply to me now that today, I become a legal adult; how to survive in the woods with very little supplies; and how to be a good citizen. Most of these skills can either be categorized as survival skills, practical skills, and citizenship skills.

As a third and final full circle moment, at Camp Yawgoog in 2019, I took the Communications merit badge, which is required to become an Eagle Scout. One requirement was to write a Letter to the Editor for my local newspaper.

On July 5, 2019, I sent in my piece on why restaurants, especially those part of chain restaurant franchises, should invest in separate fryers for gluten-free sides to eliminate the risk of gluten cross-contamination to The Medford Sun.

Five days later, an editor called me to verify that I submitted the article. Even though I thought that The Medford Sun wouldn’t run the article until September at the earliest, it appeared in the July 17 paper — and here I am, on this chilly December night, typing away the final few words on an article, nearly twenty times as long, ending with how that original letter to the editor got me one step closer to becoming an Eagle Scout.