Well hello, curious person! I’m glad that you’re interested in hearing about all of the Lifescouts badges that I’ve collected so far. I’ve included a little story about how I earned each one, but be warned: some of them aren’t super interesting. I’ll be quite impressed if you make it through this whole thing…
Go Skydiving.
My most recent badge! I assume that if you’re reading this post then you’ve probably already seen my Skydiving video, but just in case you haven’t, I’ve popped it below. To sum up though: I jumped out of a plane and it was nice.
Visit the Empire State Building.
The first time that I ever went abroad without my family was on a trip to NYC back when I was 17. Although I wasn’t able to go up the Empire State Building at the time, I have still seen it in person! Spoiler alert: It’s quite tall.
Fly in a hot air balloon.
A friend of mine actually owns a hot air balloon, so I’ve been up in his lots of times! As a result I’ve also been part of his balloon’s crew, which is the team that set it up before it flies, follow it in the sky, and go to pick it up wherever it lands.
Learn to play the guitar.
The guitar that I use nowadays is actually the only one that I’ve ever owned – it was given me to my Dad years ago, and was his old one. This was also the first instrument that I learnt without taking lessons!
See the sunrise.
I’ve done this a bunch of times in my life just by virtue of having to be up really early in the past, although none of those occasions have have stories behind them that are really worth telling. The sun just came up and it was pretty.
See the Mona Lisa.
I saw it for the first time when I went to Paris back in 2011. I enjoyed the Louvre a lot, but the Mona Lisa was a bit hard to appreciate, given all the people surrounding it and the thick later of glass covering it…
Learn to skateboard.
Although I never learnt any tricks (not for lack of trying) I did skateboard a lot when I was younger, usually just to get from A to B. I never really skated at the skatepark either – I much preferred playing around on the board when nobody else was watching.
Bungee jump.
I did this back in October 2010 with Alex and made a video about it (which is below). I loved it to bits, the adrenalin rush was incredible, and the experience of doing it was definitely one of the main reasons that I wanted to try Skydiving.
Go on a picnic.
As with the sunrise badge, this is something that I’ve done many times in the past, but not something that I have any particularly interesting stories about. Mostly I’ve had picnics on the beach with my Dad, which probably means that I’ve eaten a large amount of sand in my lifetime…
Learn to swim.
I’ve no idea when I learnt to swim, but I’ve definitely done a LOT of swimming in my lifetime. I used to go every week back when I was in school, and I still do it pretty often nowadays too, although running is probably my preferred method of exercise nowadays.
Go fishing.
I used to do this fairly often, I even had my own fishing rod! One time I remember in particular was when I didn’t catch anything, but my sister somehow caught enough fish to feed the whole family. They were super delicious, too…
See Big Ben.
When I was young, me and my family went on holiday to London (which is a very strange concept to me now that I live here) but that was the first time I ever saw Big Ben. Nowadays I see it pretty darn often, but always try to appreciate it when I walk by.
See the Eiffel Tower.
As with the Mona Lisa, I saw this for the first time on my trip to France back in 2011. I’ve now been up it twice, the second time being on my Contiki trip that I went on back in October. He’s some gif proof that I’ve been there:
Visit a zoo.
I’ve been to a few Zoos in my time (my memory says that Bristol Zoo was the coolest) but the one I’ve been to most often is Newquay zoo, which is the nearest one to where my Dad lives. I must have been there about 5 times…
Go horse riding.
I’ve done this a few times, although it’s only ever been a very tame version of horse riding – the kind where someone walks by the horse to guide it. I don’t remember being particularly enthralled by it. The horses were nice, though.
Hold a snake.
I actually had a brief phase recently when I decided that I wanted a snake, and so I went to go and hold a few at a reptile store. They’re lovely things, but I wasn’t taken enough buy them to actually purchase one, unfortunately.
Own a pet.
Technically I’ve done this – my parents had a cat called Lenin who they said was “my” cat, although I didn’t see him much because, when we moved house once, he refused to move with us and stayed with our grandparents instead.
And that’s all for now! If you want to know more about Lifescouts / would like to see the full list of badges so far, go here: lifescouts.com. Happy lives to you all.
