Richmond, Virginia (1989)

At my Eagle Scout award banquet at Gayton Kirk, which sponsored Boy Scout Troop 776.

Shane is on the far left. His father was the Scout Master. Tyler is in the middle. We were on the wrestling team together. He later became an Army Reserve Chinook pilot. He’s also the one who talked me back into Scouting after I quit when we moved from Pennsylvania to Richmond.

He knew I liked history, particularly Civil War history, and he had me come to his local Troop and talk about it to the new Scouts.

I quit when I was Star rank and needed to finish Life rank, a dozen Merit Badges, and my Eagle Scout project before I could earn the final badge in Scouting.

I knew it would look really good on a college application, but the problem was I needed to finish all of that in 12 months as you had to be under age 18 to earn the badge.

When I committed to trying to complete Scouting and earn my Eagle Scout rank, it was the first time in my life I took on a big project and completed it to fruition.

I laid out all my tasks on a piece of paper, organized them according to priority, developed a timeline and game plan, and went after it.

That experience taught me so much. I still use those techniques today.