A True Honor

I’m not very good at putting my thoughts into words, so I’m relying on this to speak for itself.

Yesterday was my brother’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Earning Eagle Scout is a huge deal, and I’m really proud of my brother. He’s worked toward this award for years and he has earned every bit of it. That being said, the ceremony was nice, long, but nice. It mainly consisted of different leaders that have been influential in my brother’s scouting career and life sharing memories and thoughts about my brother and how he has grown. Many of the speakers began with the first time they met Tommy, recalling his outgoing personality and big heart. They all talked about that summer camp and how Tommy was sort of an adopted member of their troop, sitting with them at meals because by chance he seemingly always wound up in line at about the same time as them. Several hours into the ceremony, it was finally my brother’s turn to make his speech. He wouldn’t let anyone see it before the ceremony so we all had absolutely no idea what he was going to say. Tommy told stories about when each leader had made or begun to make an impact in his life, defining moments, how Mr. W scolded him for giving our mom attitude, how Mr. M took his knife when he used it to cut down another scout’s canopy (that’s another story), and eventually he got to Mr. R. Tommy had told us that the boys from his old troop had teased him, but left it at that. Tommy started telling us how the boys would throw his food on the ground and step on it, how they ran his sleeping bag up the flag pole, and how they lied to him, saying that their leader had gone to the office to call our parents to pick him up from camp, and how he raced down to the office only to find that they boys had lied, the leader was not there, but also that walking back from the office how the boys tripped him, tied him up with a rope, and began kicking and teasing him. He recalled how his troop’s leaders sat by and did nothing, but at that moment Mr. R was walking by, and stopped the boys, untied Tommy’s legs, Mr. R truly saved my brother that day. But Tommy went on in his speech, thanking more people for their support, help, and guidance. All the chairs on the stage were full, but Tommy said “I would like to give one more award out. Now this isn’t an award because you did something consciously in a specific moment, it was for doing many things over many years, even though conscious, you weren’t aware of it. You have supported my beliefs and actions without question almost every time. I would like to award my last mentor pin to my sister Katie.”

I was so honored to be mentioned at all, but especially to know that I was up there with people like Mr. R, people of strong integrity and with great compassion. I don’t know exactly why I wrote this blog, I guess it’s a testimony to and a reminder of the potential our actions hold to impact others’ lives, great and small, I just wanted to share my feelings, whatever they may be, because to be honest I’m not really sure myself.

|/
|\atie