The Peak of Scouting Max B Grove

"Mr. Grove, you can come back in the room now." Wiping pints of sweat off my forehead, my heart racing, I reenter the room containing four people: the four people whose sole job is to challenge everything I have done for the past six years. Maybe I will pass. Maybe I will not.

Let's go back about forty-five minutes in time to the same room.

"Max, good to see you here! You have worked very hard to get to this point!" I shake hands with everybody and we sit down.

At this point, I already felt as though I had sprinted a mile. Six years of working in Boy Scouts brought me to this peak: the Eagle Scout Board of Review. The Board of Review is a chance to look back on your Scouting path and for the National Scout Committee to see if you truly fulfilled all of the requirements for the Eagle rank. I hand my Advancement Chairman all the necessary paperwork. Seemingly simple questions are then asked of me: how did you demonstrate leadership, what do our oath and law mean to you, and what is your favorite Scouting memory? I answer them all honestly in the heat of the moment. I tell them that I served as Junior Assistant Scoutmaster, Senior Patrol Leader, Guide, and just smiled the whole time. I speak about my leadership role as Senior...