damian + turion

[110908] FREED

After 2 years... 24 months... 104 weeks... 728 days... 17,472 hours... 1,048,320 minutes... and 62,899,200 seconds, I am finally free. I figured I would be elated and be filled with joy and overwhelming feelings but oddly, I feel rather indifferent about everything. No doubt, I am glad that this mandatory phase and chapter in my life has come to a close but somehow, I had thought that I would be feeling more than the indifference I am currently experiencing.

Turns out to be the exact opposite of what I had in mind all along ever since I completed my training as a recruit, after the seemingly never ending and counting down to my ORD date. Regardless of the indifference, I am just glad that I can move on with my life now and look forward (hopefully) to a long, successful and enriching career.

As I look back upon my stint in serving the nation as an obligation as a male Singaporean citizen, I realized that I hadn't come out of the stint with much lessons learnt. All it did in imbuing in me was a fierce dislike and contempt at the way the organization was run by people who are assholes in the worst instances and incompetent idiots at best. No doubt, I am a poor judge for declaring the forest to be rotten because of a few bad apples but unfortunately, the good are few and far in between.

I would not miss anything about NS except the people with whom I had the pleasure, honour and good luck in meeting and working along the way through the shit that is NS@Jalan Bahar. Seniors who pointed, guided and imparted the necessary know-hows, tricks and advice along the way when I was starting to stand. Fellow batchMATE (not mates) in which to give moral and physical support to and bash through each and every day and Juniors, who were in my opinion the best that we could have gotten and proving that they are the very best amongst the 3 coys day in day out. I am glad for all their companionship along the way as we slogged, worked and get driven mad by the insane, unreasonable and often illogical management that pinned us down and free laboured us whenever a chance arise. For that, I am thankful. Sadly, like many before us, they are but another part in our lives, relegated to the back of the mind and the throng of society and space of time as we move on. Never forgotten but never destined to remain.

That is my NS experience in a nutshell.

ORD LO...

Yesterday's memories