Being in the army has been a bane of my life, but, as everyone says, everything happens for a reason; this applies to army too. I won't say that it has made me a better person, because I refuse to make it sound like the more aligned one is to the military-type behaviour, the better a person he is. Instead, I'll say that army has brought out some confidence in me in interacting with others, as well as some deeply-rooted angst.

That isn't the point of this entry. Here, I am going to be recalling some memories I've made in my one year and six days thus far of service.

Disclaimer: There will be some bitching. Minor ones.

Playing lame camp games to pass time
This made up the first three days of my army life. We were supposed to enlist on the 7th November, but due to administrative cock-ups involving last minute changes, we came on the 4th November (I've come to realise that a lot of administrative cock-ups involve last minute changes). Still, these three days were blessings in disguise because it still counted in our duration of service, although we didn't really do anything besides sitting in bunk, waiting for further instructions as instructed, and playing lame camp games to pass time. It was fun, though, bonding over hitting one another on the forehead as penalty and all that.

Being forced to fall out after the climax of my first field camp
Skipping to field camp, it was the most tired I'd been as far as I could remember. If I remember correctly, I wrote down notes while half-asleep. I'm impressed. So, when the climax of the field camp, namely the tekan session and the receive-a-letter-from-our-parents session, was finally over, the rest of the days would've been a breeze... except my buddy noticed my eyes were way too red and my encik forced me to fall out. It was good news until I learned that I had to redo field camp.

Proudly telling my friend that I won't cry, and then crying like a baby afterwards
During re-field camp, I knew what was up. We all knew there was going to be that tekan session and letter session again and that most of us would cry. I told my fellow re-field campees that I would not, and I was so sure. We even made a bet. But then I received a letter from my section mates cheering me on, and I cried anyway.

Cooking maggi mee outfield
This is arguably my favourite NS memory. One of the nights in field camp, we were told to get our mess tins, maggi mee and fire equipments. We were lead to a field where we cooked under the clear sky and the stars, and the experience of having really hot half-cooked maggi-mee outfield is magical.

Getting lost in a 100-metre by 100-metre forest
This was for a navigation practice when I was a specialist cadet. It was the day I realised I suck at navigation.

Watching as my friend faints out of exhaustion
Although a bad memory, I'll choose to remember this, because despite not being close to him, I still felt horrible as I watched the others scream at him to hang in there before the medic evacuated him.

Watching as mud flies to another friend constantly
It was during a live firing of the mortar, and it was a rainy day. The gun being fitted into the ground, every recoil would send mud flying towards a certain direction where either my friend or I had to take pose at. He challenged me to a game of scissor-paper-stone to decide who that guy would be. I won, and it was funny.

Searching a vast field for a small pin
This is an army thing. When someone lose an equipment, everyone had to search for it no matter how unlikely it was to find it. I mean, it was a freaking pin in a freaking field. It happened twice in my NS life, not including the following:

Searching a vaster field and digging holes for a lanyard
This was my detachment's fault. We lost the lanyard and I realised and we had to search for it right before we had to rush back to camp after a field camp. We ran all around, searched for the exact spots where we deployed, dig up holes that we covered up, and so on, but it was gone. The result: We had to write a 3000-word essay about the importance of taking care of our equipment.

Realising I have no talent in the army
I can't navigate, I can't shoot, I mess up my commands from time to time, I'm disorganised, and the list goes on. It doesn't matter though. There's a reason why I'm not an army person.

Realising I have bad luck in the army
I enlisted early, went for BMT field camp twice, drew lots to be one of the unlucky guys who get confined for the platoon, got caught for a mistake that everyone made despite giving more fucks than them (re: my 7 extras), got sent to a course and then got rejected on day one due to administrative cock-ups involving last minute changes (re: a class three course), gave a farewell speech which I had to take back the following day (re: the same thing), and the only night I stayed in my most recent field camp, it rained and a number of recruits needed urgent medical attention, which leads to...

Going up and down a forest in heavy rain in the middle of the night

Pretending to flare up because of a chair
This was fairly recent, during one of the recruits' stand-by areas. We agreed that for one particular one, we would be strict and angry. I went overboard because in the midst of pretending to be angry, I realise that what I said made sense and I really got angry.

Doubting my understanding of left and right
This was yesterday. I told the driver to turn left, in Chinese, and he turned right. I repeated, "left," and he laughed at me, saying that even after twenty years of my life, I couldn't get my left and right right. For the next few minutes, I was so confused. And then I realise that in thirty years of his life, he couldn't get his left and right right. And he is a driver.

Realising that even after one year and six days, I still hate being in the army
No need for more elaboration.

Labels: NS, reliving those days