Personal Narrative: My Influences In My Life

Growing up, I have had many experiences in my life that have shaped who I am. These influences have given me qualities that I consider both good and bad. Each of these chapters in my life have given form to the values that I hold as well as my self-identity. There are five main chapters of my life that influenced who I am today, and those chapters are elementary/middle school, Boy Scouts, High School, college, and lastly my parents. The first chapter that made me who I am today is my elementary and middle school life. Elementary school was the time when I was young and was free to do whatever I wanted to. I was very involved at this phase of my life as I did Basketball, Cub Scouts, Taiko, and Baseball. Although I was very involved in
Boy Scouts starts from when you enter 6th grade to the day you turn 18. Since I started since I was a Cub Scout, which starts in elementary school, this has been a huge part of my life. Apart from how it helped me grow socially, it also taught me a set of skills that I take great pride in. In Boy Scouts there are almost an endless amount of merit badges you can obtain. They have merit badges for almost anything, ranging from practical things like personal management, to things like chess, and as long as someone is willing to teach it, you can obtain it. Although there are so many different merit badges, the Boy Scouts of America has required merit badges for you to advance to the next scouting rank. In Boy Scouts the scouting rank goes: New Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star Scout, Life Scout, and then Eagle Scout. The essential merit badges teach you things like first aid, swimming, lifesaving, knot tying etc. They say that once you become a First Class scout, you have a greater knowledge of first aid than the average person. I take great pride in the fact that I know a lot about saving people’s lives in emergency situations. Knowing first aid I feel like if a situation does go bad, I can always do at least something to better the situation. I feel that Boy Scouts was an influence in my desire to go into a medical profession. It also helped me see that I cannot handle bloody situations so that I cannot become a doctor. This was helpful in my choice of being a Pharmacist where I was told by a Pharmacy technician that Pharmacy is the most medical help you can give someone with the least physical contact. My discovery of not liking bloody situations came from first aid day. This was a day where the older scouts would test our knowledge of first aid. There would be scenarios set up where someone would have “injuries” and we must analyze the situation