+ N.S. +

+ N.S. +

NS has always been a kind of fascination for me. Just the thought of protecting my country makes me go 'wow'. Of course, i also like the feeling of comradeship that will be experienced during the training... and the discipline and orders involved. Some people actually loathe the idea of being ordered about. They say it is being treated like a dog? Hmm... i wouldn't say so. I won't mind people screaming and shouting orders into my face, i won't die from that anyway. And somemore i can scream back into their faces too! "YES SIR!!" hahaha.. it's kinda fun! Oh yah.. that’s definitely different from being ordered to do mundane stuff like housework. Because in the army, everyone receives the same kind of treatment and everyone need to do what they like or don’t like. But in the case of... hmm for example housework... perhaps the work is not distributed evenly. Perhaps in the whole household you are the only person being screamed at for not doing housework. =/ Whatever! Oh.. and what's wrong with living life a little more disciplined? well.. maybe a lot more than a little.. but so? it trains your mind and mental strength, doesn't it?

Actually I had wanted to go serve the army before when I graduated from JC. Well, it could be due to the fact that I grew up with 2 brothers, and they get to serve the army!! Grr.. I went to all the talks on the NS stuff. Too bad though, Airforce was out for me because I’ll got ultra high myopia and astig . Navy? No thanks. Though I love the sun, sand and sea, I get motion sickness very easily. So I pretty much assumed I have seasickness too, and I really can’t imagine myself puking everyday onboard. That’s so pathetic! That left the land army. Haha.. I was almost tempted to join back then, and the most surprising thing is, my mum actually had no objections! She was one who had always disapproved me to do anything ‘masculine’ by her own standards; canoeing, rock climbing, tae-kwon-do or any other martial arts except those slow ones like taiji or yoga. Is yoga considered? Anyway, during the talks, I started getting worried. One of the biggest reasons being, I’m very accident prone. And I couldn’t even jump properly on both my feet! I can get a sprain from just jumping down a 1.5m high wall! That’s pretty amazing huh? And I was worried that I would fall out of course due to injuries which was very common according to the speaker. Then everything would have come to naught. Also I don’t have an athletic body, and I already had trouble passing my NAFTA, though I still did pass in the end. HaHA.. Then everyone started discouraging me from joining. My elder bro almost fainted when he heard of my suggestion, and his friend simply said I won’t be able to take it. Hmm.. so in the end I dropped the idea. Lalalaa.. Okay, all talk but no action. So? I like leh.. cannot ah? =P

Anyway, as my friends themselves got into NS, I heard more interesting stories, and I simply enjoyed them! Most of my girlfriends simply rolled their eyes when the guys started talking about NS stuff. I actually asked the guys about it! One of their most amazing things are their weapons or what with M16 or whatever.. I can never remember or understand. I only know a NC-16 though. Hehe.. And I can never remember their names for A-B-C.. A=Alpha, B=Beta... eh.. wrong.. Bravo! C=Charlie, D=Delta? E=??? Elite or Elephant? F=Foxtrot!! I love this name! Foxtrot! Sounds so nice! Hahaha... G=Gamma? Then I don’t know already. Oh yah.. recently my little bro was in NS, and that day when my mum called him, he was practically yelling over the phone, because someone had tripped over a pail of maggots and it was so sickening and smelly!! Wahaha!! That’s quite funny.. just imagine a group of guys making a fuss over maggots.. hahaaaz... I was so amused I told everyone I see the next day.. but they were like -_-'''

Anyway, my bro was getting sick of NS already. And so do almost all of my guy friends back then. They complained of the conditions there, the treatment, the politics... Okay I understand. But then again.. civilian life isn’t much better. But I definitely dislike guys who actually have the NERVE to say that NS is a complete waste of time!! A waste of their youth, holding them back from their careers, education and whatsoever and they wanted to migrate to foreign places just so that their children needn’t ‘suffer’ the same fate as them doing a part for Singapore!! Bullshit! Those guys to me are plain cowards and weaklings, that’s all! ok.. so i presume guys after reading this will come after me protesting => what would i know since i would never get to experience all these? Things are not as simple or easy as it seems. There's lots of other ugly sides that are lurking around but i would never know since I’m a girl. And they always refer those who never complain as those who belonged to the high ranks and they received very much respect and good treatment, and those who had complained were those who belonged to the low ranks who were treated like dirt. Ok I agree.. but this kind of treatment is available EVERY where! So what are they complaining about?

Anyway when my bro said about being sick of NS, my mum told him to bear with it loh… Bo bian.. that’s what everyone had to do.. just bear with it for 2 yrs loh.. it will be over soon. Eh.. I actually ‘told’ her off.. heez.. as in I told her she shouldn’t say like that mah.. tat would be like asking him to resign to his ill fate. No way… she should have asked him to find meaning in what he is doing now. Let him know that he is training to protect his country, his loved ones, himself. Though he don’t like what he’s doing, but at least it’s survival skills! One day who knows? He might need it! Nonetheless, the next day, I came by this story book by a local writer. And I bought my first ever fiction in my whole life for my bro (I always borrowing from libraries since I find it very costly to buy story books). “KO Island”. A book about what if NS men had to fight? About how a group of tourists were kidnapped by pirates and they applied their skills learnt during the 2 and half years of NS and ICT to fight back and save themselves! Don’t be surprised that all sorts of vocations were vital here! Do not look down on those supposedly ‘small’ positions; they were as important as commandos! In it contained lots of army terms which I don’t understand, but always hear the guys say! I finished the whole book in one go, not that it was very engaging, but because it fulfilled all my fantasy about the NS skills. I had always wondered what would happen if I really met a dire situation. Would I be able to survive at all? I don’t even know how to start a bbq fire with all the necessary stuff, let alone starting a fire with nothing! One friend once told me, if she ever landed herself in some ‘survivor’ situation like in the show, she confirm will die. I think me too! That’s probably why I had always been interested to go NS in the first place! To depend on those weaklings for defence and safety, I’ll rather help myself.

So guys! Don’t resent too much about having to ‘waste’ 2 years of your youth to be a ‘slave’ or going back for ICT. You never know when they will come in handy. Find meaning in what you have done! You should be proud of yourself for surviving those 2 n half years! If you still can’t accept the fact that you are bound to protect your home soil the moment you are born, try reading that book. After all, most of my perception of the life in army come from Army Daze and Bao Gao Ban Zhang series which are my favorite movies!! =P