As of today, there are 40 Lifescouts badges and I've done roughly 30 of them. so instead of doing all of them at once, for the next few weeks, every Friday I'm going to be posting five badges that I've reached as well as posting my little story behind the badge.
Empire State Building
Spring of 2012, just months after 9/11 happened, I was still living in DC with my family. Things had finally settled down so my parents decided it would be fun to take a weekend trip to New York. This was the first time I climbed the Empire State building. It was also the first time I had been to Times Square. I've been to the Empire State Building twice since that first trip, and I'm hoping that I can go again this year with a potential trip to New York in the summer.
Play a Guitar
In high school, one of my best friends, Justin, started to teach me how to play the guitar. He spent a lot of time my sophomore and junior year teaching me basics and even progressing to songs. He passed away April of my junior year. That summer, I went to Brazil with my family to visit my grandparents. One of the guys I met there taught me to play a different style of guitar. He was incredibly sweet and helped me get through a time in my life when I was still dealing with the death of such a good friend. Since that summer, I haven't picked up a guitar. I doubt that I would remember much. It seems that I now associate playing the guitar with such a sad time in my life, I don't know if I want to anymore.
French
I started taking French when I was in the 8th grade (god that feels like forever ago!). I honestly feel bad for that teacher, I was such a terrible student and I really did give him hell. I continued taking into my freshman and sophomore years of high school and then took a semester in college. While I'm by no means fluent, I can still read French and I can hold my own.
Skateboarding
In high school, a lot of my friends knew how to skateboard and knew how to do all sorts of fun little tricks. Never one to be the one left on the sidelines, I took a shot and taught myself. I could do a few basic tricks but I lost interest once I got the basics down. Although I wanted to fit in, I didn't really see the point in it.
Watch a Sunrise
This is actually something I've done many times in my life. If I don't have work, then I would prefer to stay up all night. There have been many nights that I've been out with friends until the sun rose. I've also had many nights that I didn't actually see the sun rise but I was up due to A) my addiction to the internet and inability to turn it off and sleep or B) procrastinating and putting off homework until the last possible moment.
