We-Write Scouting Adventure

This is the second we-write I have done. This time @ntowl partnered with me. I wrote the first half, and she wrote the second half. I love the way she ended it! It's always fun to see where these stories go!

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Johnny had been in the scouting program since he became a Cub Scout at age seven. He loved the projects, the camp-outs, the adventures, and the wonderful friendships he had made over the years. Now he was finally 18 years old, and in the process of applying to become an Eagle Scout, and planning the required service project. He had read about several past projects that had been done, things like building a park bench, collecting clothing and shoes for third-world countries, establishing a dog park, or putting on a free sports camp. There were so many ideas out there, but they had already been done by somebody. Johnny wanted to be different. He wanted to come up with a service project that nobody had ever done before. This was the age of technology. Perhaps he could do something with computers. Maybe he could set up a class to help the elderly navigate the internet. No, someone else had probably done all of those things. It had to be something completely unusual, completely off- the-wall, yet so very, very helpful to somebody (or somebodies) in his community.

And here is @ntowl's ending to the story.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. His mind kept trying to put new spins on the old ideas but none of them ever felt quite right. They weren’t different enough or memorable enough for him. He wanted everyone in town to think about his project long after he left for college.

His friends were getting annoyed at him for sulking about it all. He wouldn’t talk about anything else. His friend Sage finally dragged him out to the mall to meet some girls, figuring that might shake him out of it.

They walked and ended up in a Best Buy where the girls wanted to try the virtual reality demo. Everyone had a blast and kept saying how it felt like they were really there in the game or the museum or the ocean.

And then he knew what to do. Once he got home he went to the town library and asked if they would support him installing a virtual reality station. He promised them it would allow people to see art in museums across the world or to travel the world as if they were really there. People could have experiences they never could afford to make the time to have.

And they said yes.

My nephew is actually doing his eagle scout project now. He's building a memorial for local vets. It was so hard to think of something off the wall! If she hadn't said that, I would have gone with a dog park!