Back when I was at school, everyone did the Duke of Edinburgh's Silver, it was just expected.
DOE Gold was offered, and each year some sixth-formers went for it.
Having been a cub and then a scout, and having completed by Explorer Belt a few years earlier, it seemed the natural thing to progress into.
One of the teachers suggested that we try doing it in Kayaks, rather than walking, which turned out to be a great fun.
We ended up spending a week exploring the river Allier, in the South of France, for a week.
The only downside to this mode of travel was that the nights were a little cold, though that is to be expected and balanced out the glorious sunshine we had during the days.
I didn't actually end up completing my DOE Gold until the summer after my A-Levels, when I spent a week on residential with a friend from scouts rebuilding the stone path down to Dancing Ledge in South Dorset.
This complicated getting everything signed off, and I eventually got everything sorted and went to St James' Palace for a presentation in the summer of 2009, where we were graced by the Duke of Edinburgh himself.
Amusingly, the Duke recognised the Gold broach my mum, who was among the guests present, was wearing as being her DOE Gold award, and commented on it.
Fast forward to this Easter, when I was invited to attend the Queen's Scout parade at Windsor.
This is the formal, pomp-and-circumstance, part of the award being conferred, and collects all the recent Queen's Scouts from around the country to parade with a military band inside Windsor Castle.
There, the Chief Scout (currently Bear Grylls) and a representative of the Royal family congratulate each of the scouts and take a marching salute from each of the regional groups.
This is, in many ways, a more interesting ceremony than the local part where you are actually given the badges and certificate which confer the award.
I managed to arrange for my award ceremony to take place at the end of an otherwise (mostly) ordinary meeting at the start of the new term of my home scout group, First Ealing North.
At the end of the meeting we presented a large number of badges to the scouts that had earned them towards the end of the previous term, or had had them signed off during our Summer Camp.
There were a surprisingly large number of badges, and it took quite a while.
This culminated with our County Commissioner presenting me with my Queen's Scout certificate and asking some questions about the things I had done, and encouraging all the scouts present to pursue their own awards.
Afterwards, one of the things that he mentioned was that there was an opportunity for Queen's Scouts from the London counties to be a part of the Honour Guard at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.
Since was a remarkable honour and literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I asked him to put my name down for inclusion, and I was lucky enough to be asked to take part by the organisers.
Continued in Part 2: The Cenotaph...
