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Cost of Making People Proud

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Cost of Making People Proud
Sometimes the cost of making people proud can be nerve racking, but it is usually worth it. After two and a half months of planning and three days of beautiful weather, I finished my boy scout Eagle project. It was the biggest project I had ever taken on; by myself I was in charge of getting a hold of permits, donations of food and paint, and organizing volunteers so that the underpass on first avenue north could be repainted. I sat on an old couch in an even older building waiting outside an office filled with a council of people that had the authority to say “this project wasn’t good enough” or “you didn’t show enough leadership”. Needless to say, it was a little intimidating. The environment alone had me stressing. There was a clock above the doors that separated me from the council, and every time I looked at it, I could hear it stealing the precious time I needed to do last minute preparations, click after click after click. My heart was racing as tried to think of everything they could possibly ask in hopes of anticipating what was going to happen. Finally when the man opened the doors and told me that they were ready for me, I thought I was going to faint. I felt like I was a blind man entering a room I have never been in. I did not know what to think. When I got inside it wasn’t what I thought. I had imagined in all my worrying that I was going to be interrogated. I would sit at the end of a long generic table with the only light in the room pointed at me while countless people threw questions at me all at once. I found myself instead in a formal setting. I was asked to sit down, and the questioning began. They didn’t throw the questions at me, but gave them to me one at a time. During the session I realize that I had prepared well. To this day the only thing that made all the stressful anticipation worth it was the day of my award ceremony. All the people that helped me along the way were there to congratulate me. As I stood in front of them I could tell what they were thinking they were proud of me. No matter how old a person is, there is always someone that they want to make proud, and the sacrifices that are necessary are almost always worth the reward.

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