Caution: The following blog post is unthinkably lengthy. Read at your own risk.
Hello Reader!
Have you ever volunteered for something, without fully understanding what you were volunteering for?
Instance one: Your Mother needs the basement cleaned, but she's been so extremely stressed with various other tasks that she hasn't gotten the opportunity. Being the caring child you are, you volunteer to get the basement cleaned in order to ease her never ending, overwhelming duty as a Mother.
Surprise (!): The basement is messy as all get out, filled to the brim with age old objects you've never even seen before. Pictures, workout equipment, scattered clothes, and mounds of pointless bobbles/trinkets. "Well, you did volunteer for this..." You think, "But I didn't know it would be this bad."
Instance two: Your five your old cousin is having a birthday party and wants you to come (How sweet...). Being the considerate cousin you are, you come early to help set up the decorations. "Oh no!" Says your Uncle, "The cake was supposed to be picked up fifteen minutes ago!" You sigh, "I'll stay here and welcome guests while you pick up the cake." Without hesitation, your Uncle is out the door.
Surprise: Within minutes, thirty-two excited, energized youngsters show up for the party. Unbeknownst to you, your Uncle also ordered a Clown. "Great, now I'm in charge for thirty two Kindergarteners and some whack job in a suit from downtown..."
Instance three: There is a used curriculum sale in Lansing and you hear it's supposed to be "fun." You decide to go, all the while hoping to see one (or a few) friends of yours there. When you arrive, one of the adults emphasizes that they are down on helping hands and need help bagging flyers and pamphlets. Being the good student/individual you are, you volunteer to help out.
Surprise: There are 10,000 + flyers and pamphlets that need to be placed in baggies and it's supposedly going to take several hours. Thanks for the warning, my good fellow...
Ever been in a situation similar to these before? I have.
Haha, the last one came from experience. This passing Thursday to be perfectly honest.
I was told that it would be an easy, relatively quick operation... PSYCH!
For the next two and a half hours I packed hundreds upon thousands of flyers and pamphlets into individual baggies. Excitement galore. But I'm not a downer, not in the least. :)
That was Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, Juss, Nate, and I attended the I.N.C.H. Conference.
Numerous friends of ours were there as well. Unfortunately, a majority of them were doing "Mandatory Volunteer Work" for the National Honor Society. Yes, that's how one of them described it. Maybe there's a reason I'm not in NHS this year... Probably because I can't wrap my mind around concepts such as "Mandatory Volunteer Work"...
Anyway, instead of wondering around by myself, I decided to join my friends in their "work." Stephanie, Gracie, Kristina, Carissa, Matthew, Chris, and Jon were all wearing "I.N.C.H. T-shirts" that were several sizes too large for them. It made me chuckle. Fortunately, I was able to wear my own, comfortable clothing. You'd think that at the I.N.C.H. Conference everything would be perfectly scaled/measured/sized to fit... I guess that doesn't include apparel...
Carissa, Stephanie, Gracie, and Matthew all worked the front doors to the shopping area. Essentially what they did was check and see that the people entering were indeed homeschool parents or students, and that they were wearing their special "I.N.C.H." bracelets. Why someone would want to sneak into a homeschool convention, I do not know.
Kristina, Chris, and Jon all distributed the flyer and pamphlet baggies to people when the walked through the doors (That the other guys were guarding). I volunteered for this aspect of it. I mean, I spent hours putting together the little baggies, I decided it was my duty to see them off into the world.
Kristina and I developed a cleaver marketing technique. We noticed that most people didn't want the baggies with the flyers and pamphlets inside them because it was one extra thing to carry. We had to make the baggies appear desirable. Instead of offering someone a bag and asking, "Hello sir/miss! Would you like a bag?" We discovered that more people took the baggies when we asked, "Hello sir/miss! Would you like a goody bag?" That one extra, simple word.
When someone thinks "goody bag" they generally think of birthday parties. Sure there wasn't any candy in our baggies... But we felt so much more accomplished by rephrasing our question to make it sound appealing! Success.
After hours of chilling with friends (Well... Volunteering), it was time for me (And my two brothers) to depart from the Lansing Center.
From there, we ventured to Burchfield Park for the second time in the past two weeks.
This post is just going to get longer, so if you'd rather skip the whole Boy Scout Outing part, just scroll down to the paragraph starting with the words "Sunday morning..." But know this! If you skip over the Outing, you'll never read the portion which explains the title of this post! :)
Friday evening was the "Tap Out."
First we set up camp. It was disappointing however because we only had five scouts and three adults attend the Camporee... We had very little to set up, but exciting events such as Camporees, are more fun when there are more people attending. There were a total of 700 + scouts and venturers who attended the Camporee! Our Troop included myself, Juss, Nate, Colin, Foster, Jacob W., Jacob K., Stanley, and Dolan (Some only stayed for the tap out on Friday evening).
While we were busy setting up camp, preparations were being made for the Order's tap out... The six of us who had (possibly) been elected were eagerly anticipating the ceremony only a few hours away...
At 9:30 P.M., all scout troops and venture crews assembled at the campfire in the middle of the park. What a sight! Announcements were made by the head Scout Master and a few skits were performed (Camporee tradition), and then at 10:00 P.M., it was time for the ceremony to begin.
Darkness and quiet, followed by a steady beating of drums. Indian singing came next. From the forest, hundreds of feet behind us, marched the Indian Tribe (Initiators of the O.A.). Slowly they marched, holding their glowing torches high above their heads. When the Tribe Chief approached, the drums and singing stopped. There was a formal greeting between the Scout Master and the Tribe Chief. From that point on, the Tribe Chief took over. He and the other tribe members gave some background information on the Order, then the Tribe Chief spoke to everyone, "Those who are worthy of receiving the honor, of joining our great Order, bring them before me now."
We all held our breath.
One of the Tribe members came from behind and tapped all six of us, two times, on our right shoulder. We got up (along with sixy-two others) and stoop before the camp. There he named us off, one by one, and also included our Troop number (911 for the six of us). The drums and singing started back up again, the Tribe members led us off to the forest, marching silently into the black of night...
They informed us of the upcoming Ordeal, which shall take place on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of June. After the weekend Ordeal, we will officially be members of the O.A.! :D
Saturday morning was foggy and a bit chilly. We made our breakfast and discussed the previous night's events quietly amongst ourselves.
Saturday afternoon, Juss, Nate, Colin, and I all left the site for the Conference.
Once there, we were greeted by Seuss people! It was good fun to re-group with most of our cast (again). While there, we also got our DVD's of the Musical! The cast then performed the opening number to Seussical in front of hundreds of homeschool families! Even though none of us were wearing costumes or makeup, the opening number went well. All too soon however, it was time to depart the Lansing Center (once more) and our friends, for the Camporee.
At around 3:30 P.M., Colin and I headed off to find something to do...
In the center of the park multiple games and activities were taking place. We began looking for the activity with the shortest line. Surprisingly, the activity/game with the shortest line was the hatchet hurtling. The both of us grinned broadly, "What boy wouldn't want to throw a hatchet?" We quickly got in line. Thirty times apiece we attempted hurtling the hatchets at a tree (That they had for our use!). Not once did the hatchets "stick"! We were disappointed with this...
Soon after, one of our good friend's, Luke F., showed up. :)
Colin, Luke, and I all visited the numerous activities, talking all the while. Overall a very enjoyable rest of Saturday afternoon.
Random Note: Something that really bothered Colin and I was the lack of preparation involving the outhouse. *Ahem* in our site region, there were 200 people, ten of which were girls. IN OUR SITE REGION, there were two outhouses. There was a clean, large one, and a dirty, compact one. Guess who got the good one.
Posted outside the nicer outhouse was a sign which read "Women Only." I thought this was a BOY scout event? At one point, Colin and I both needed to use the bathroom. There were FIVE other guys in line to use the nasty, compact outhouse, but the women's outhouse was completely vacant. See anything wrong with this picture?
I would finish the rest of this story, but I'm afraid the rest is not as funny as the thought of such an ironic situation...
Sunday morning we all left the Camporee and Dad gave Colin a ride home.
Sunday afternoon was spent wrapping up last week's homework load. The most enjoyable portion of Sunday however was watching our DVD of the Musical! It was interesting...
I loved watching all of our hard work for the first time. I was even able to see scenes for the first time that I'd never seen before. I was a tad disappointed that they used footage from the second performance (For we felt our best performances were our first and third), but as I said before, I loved being able to watch the whole thing for the first time.
WHEW! That was a very long post! It's taken me a while to write this whole thing up... Hopefully someone chose to read this in its entirety, because I worked very hard on writing it! :)
Today, I need to plan a meeting, answer some Lit. questions, type up some vocabulary, and study for exams tomorrow.
Tomorrow begins the last week of school! I can't believe it! We're almost there.
I don't think I'll be updating for about week or so... I'm not sure. I have lots of work to do before summer DOES come. Wish me luck!
Hopefully your summer comes as quickly (or feels like it is)!
Thank you for reading,
~Jacob