“Once in your life, two years of your time” is a simple yet memorable phrase to all of the male counterparts in Singapore, including me. Since my adolescent years, I dreaded the inevitable National Service (NS). My mind was filled with many selfish thoughts during my pre-enlistment days; Why waste 2 years of our time serving NS for a small and defenseless country, when going to war is almost equivalent to digging your own grave? Expectedly, the day of my enlistment is like a slow and torturous living hell.
National Service to me is like a wake up call, allowing me to transform from a boy to man. We are often placed out of our comfort zone, pushing ourselves to the limits. Through these hardships, I have gained invaluable skills such as situation awareness, leadership and camaraderie.
During the period of my service, my perception of NS began to change slowly. I began to understand that the indispensable defence forces of Singapore are not to be taken for granted. This holistic defence will not be formed without the participation of everyone. Furthermore, with the constant impending threat faced by Singapore, there is an urging need to strengthen the defence of Singapore.
Looking back, serving 2 years in National Service is after all a worthy investment – Blood, sweat and tears in exchange for invaluable skills, friendships and memories that are etched inside me. As a quote by Ghandi goes: “You must be the change you see in the world”, I have learnt the importance of one individual and its effect on an entire community.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post, Kelly. You touch on some serious issues here: your initial fear of national service, your eventual service to your country, Singapore's national defence, the skills you gained. Any one of these could be a topic for a post. In the context of this assignment, I do wonder what it was that changed in you through your NS experience. To answer that, you first would need to detail the challenges more clearly. You mention "hardships," and being "placed out of our comfort zone, pushing ourselves to the limits." In what way did that happen?
ReplyDeleteExplaining more of the intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of your experience would make this a more complete post.
Thanks for the effort!