I was in Cub Scouts when I was a young child; there were lots of fun activities we did and many trips we went on. I have many great memories of those years, but there was a specific trip that will always be in my memory, one that really impacted my life and changed my personal definition of a hero. It was the brink of dawn on a cold November day in the Georgia Mountains. The sky was covered with a blanket of clouds, not allowing the sun to warm the frigid water in the river. Although the scout leaders were not too happy about the freezing cold water, my friends and I were not going to let a bit of cold stop us from white water rafting. The Cub Scout pack was split into three different rafts: groups “A”, “B”, and my group – “C”. Hardly any of …show more content…
In order to prevent any collisions with the rafts, there was a one to two minute delay between the starts. Everyone watched raft “A” with envy as it went down the river first, and it made it out of sight without any problems. My excitement was growing as raft “B” went down the river; they got stuck initially but were able to fix themselves pretty quickly, although it felt like an additional hour to my anxious mind. Finally, it was time for my raft’s departure. We jumped in the raft without caring how cold the water was, we were ready no matter the cost. I started in the back of the eight person raft, which meant I was paddling along with the people in the front two seats. Everything was going great, we only had a few minor instances where we got …show more content…
No one else except for my friend sitting next to me seemed to notice that the raft in front of us was stopped. As we got closer we heard them shouting something, but no one could understand them over the sound of the water clashing against the rocks. We kept approaching, getting closer and closer, and out of nowhere we saw something bobbing up and down in the water – all I could tell was that it was bright orange. It only took a few seconds to realize that it was someone holding onto their life jacket was latched on a rock, and right behind him was a small waterfall that was trying to suck him in. We got closer and I realized that I would be closest to him as we passed, but I would not be able to reach him with my arms. I reached out as far as I could with my paddle, yelling at him to grab it. I was not even the one in the water, and yet it was still one of the scariest moments of my life when he let go of the life jack in order to reach for my paddle. He grabbed it as tightly as he could and my friend next to me helped me pull him in. Everyone else was trying to slow down the raft so that he could get pulled in before we went down the waterfall, and thankfully, due to everyone’s straining effort, we were able to accomplish just that. The look of relief on his face said it all,
I smiled to myself and decided that I would go join in. With that, I took a huge deep breath and jumped into the salty water. The water was cool and refreshing; I felt it slide through my hair making it sway in the water. I swam deeper and deeper into the deep blue water. Sunlight streamed through it, lighting up the water around me turning it to gold. I kicked harder and I felt my muscles surge with strength and I pushed further. My lunges began to burn for the need of oxygen, but I refused to go up. I repeatedly told myself just a little bit longer. Until I was unable to proceed anymore without more air in my lungs, I swam to the top of the water taking a huge breaths, filling my lungs with air. I could then taste the salty water as it ran down my face and dripped over my lips. Just then I thought, I will never forget this moment, this place, or the experiences I felt while visiting
It was our fifth day in the Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico, the halfway point of the trek. I as the Crew Leader was responsible for the other 11 members of the crew, including 4 adults. I was in charge, and amazingly the adults rarely tried to take over, although they would strongly advise me what to do in some situations. Phil, with the exception of me, the oldest scout and the Chaplain for the trip, was my second. Together we dealt with problems of making sure everyone carried the right amount of stuff in their pack to who had to cook and cleanup each day. The trip had gone well so far, no injuries, and the worst problem had been a faulty backpack. As I walked I thought about the upcoming campsite. Supposedly this one had running water from a solar powered pump—so had the last night’s site but the tank was too low to use for anything but cooking because the of how cloudy it had been of late. But today was bright and shinny, and hot, so I didn’t think there would be a problem.
It was a warm rainy June night the humidity was high which made it even harder to breathe on the crammed boat. My family was asleep on the constantly rocking boat suddenly the boat shook, but my family was still fast asleep. I couldn’t seem to fall asleep so I got up and stepped out on the cold wet steel boats upper deck to get some air. When I got outside I realized that it was pouring bucket sized rain. I saw increasingly large waves crash furiously against the lower deck. Hard water droplets pelted my face, I could taste the salt water in my mouth from the spray of the ocean. Suddenly A massive wave slammed hard against the ship and almost swallowed the boat. Wind gusts started kicking up. I held onto the rail grasping it as if it were my prized possession. Suddenly I was blown
Surprisingly, our parents had beaten us to the top and we all stopped in awe, mesmerized by the great waterfall in front of us. My mouth felt like the Sahara desert. I vividly remember reaching for the chilling water bottle that hid underneath the tons of clothes stuffed in my father’s black backpack to quench my thirst. I took off my beaten down shoes and stinky socks covered in dirt from the trail and blood from the blisters on my feet and dove into the refreshing lake. After swimming through the lake for a few seconds, I abruptly jumped out of the freezing water. My toes turned into a blue that reminded me of the blueberry muffins from breakfast that morning. My body shivered as I exited the lake and threw on a warm towel over my shoulders. Gradually my body heat increased, escaping the risk of hypothermia. At that point, I just wanted to go home. My family and I gathered all our belongings and I dragged my energyless body into the large, gray shuttle. The shuttle smelled of sweat from previous passengers. It drove us down a rough, bumpy trail, causing my tall father to constantly slam his head on the roof of the car. After we finally got back to our hotel, we all let off a sigh of
“Fine by me, anything to get away from you and that popcorn!” Charlie screamed back to her.
As we got further and further down the river, we realized we were in the Indian Territory. We tied up the raft on a tree that had falled down across the river. We set up a lean-to and cut some firewood, and put it in a dry place to keep it from the rain.
There were a great many sights to see and memories to be made as we traversed across the beautiful landscape. The trek consisted of two ten mile segments so the younger scouts could just do one part if they became exhausted, but the older scouts were encouraged to tackle the entire journey. As we camped that night, we were able to use our leadership skills in order to delegate to the younger scouts the preparations that needed to made in order to create an organized
For the last few years, I’ve been involved in Boy Scouts of America. Boy Scouts is very important to me, and has been a huge influence for good on me. Scouting teaches its participance various skills, values, and morals. Some of the knowledge I’ve gained is mostly only useful while camping, but most if it is very use full in everyday life.
...re are fifty boats in our race, and we got third, now that's not too bad for a busted fin." This did not seem to help, however, as there was no apparent response. "I don't know about you all, but after this, it just makes me want to bust by butt during the off-season to come back here in the Spring and kill them all!" Slowly, but surely, everyone's heads raised. I realized that this was not the end at all. We made a pact to work our hardest to come back in the Spring and win out as much as possible. As the commotion settled, Chris quieted us down, "Okay, come on guys." He put his hand in the middle of the circle. We all followed his lead. "We will not let an unfortunate accident get in our way! We will not settle for third place!" With that we all threw our hands up into the air. I looked around and smelled the breeze. Suddenly it was the best feeling in the world.
I remember having to go on the road to pick up some supplies. I was with my dad and one of the workers at the orphanage. The actual supply run was not what made the event memorable, it was actually when we stopped for coffee. We were able to sit down and ask him questions. I remember asking why he did what he did, like I just didn’t understand why, he did not make much money and it was not easy what he did.
The weekly meetings, the seemingly never ending community service, it was dreadful. Whatever time I spent not at home or at school was spent with my troop; and it didn’t help that my dad was a troop leader. I hated every single thing about it. I never gave it a chance. I begged my dad to quit; I felt as though the scout program was stopping me from doing anything and everything that I wanted to do. Every day I told him,” I don’t know anyone and the whole thing is so boring!” and everyday my dad told me,” just wait until we go camping.” I didn’t understand what he meant by that up until the day we actually went
Before getting to the jump there was a thirty-minute drive to the site and on the way, I contemplated whether or not jumping was a good idea. I had been told by my friends who had gone the day before that someone got hurt by not jumping out towards the water, so I was fighting the fear of not jumping “right” or landing without hurting myself. As we arrived at the cliff it became apparent to me that forty foot high cliff was unmatched by its surroundings and, jagged rocks and murky water lay beneath it. I looked in amazement as I thought to myself about how soon I would be in what looked like a bottom less lake. I waited until someone jumped to make sure it was safe enough while my friends consistently urged me to go. I decided after a short amount of time had passed to jump. As I ran off the cliff into thin air I realized there was no turning back. I screamed at the top of my lungs and my heart seemed to pumped harder and pumped louder than it ever had before. Before I knew it I had hit the water. What had seemed like a minute in the
The smoke was choking me. I could see a faint outline of a face across the deck. It was Tom, my lifelong friend and companion. He was completely surrounded by the bright flames."Tom are you OK!!""Yeah, but the fire has me surrounded!""Tom jump overboard, hurry!""But....but....""Do it quick, hurry!"I hit the surprisingly cold water with a crash.
The sun is radiant and scorching, as always when it’s August in Michigan, while the lake water is warm with occasional ripples flowing through as the wind subtly blows over. I’ve got my giant pink floaty around my waist with my ridiculously large bug-eyed sunglasses around my face and I’m ready to set myself afloat into the water. As I float on my raft into the warm water I close my eyes while the waves relax me into a soft slumber as I drift into the middle of lake. Without knowing how much time has passed, I awaken to the sound of Alicia’s mom yelling my name and automatically panic,