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Finally, I am back to what i call home.

Before I get on with talking about the 15 days @ Tekong, let me begin by giving my thanks. A big thanks to my fellow blog readers for staying with me. A super duperly big thanks to my girlfriend, Si Hui, for giving me emotional support, and helping me to settle and arrange external stuff while I am totally cut off from the internet, such as my SMU interview schedule, running of Slops, and helping me to blog.

Military life is totally different from that of a civilian’s. The first few days there, I felt very disorientated inside. A better word to replace “disorientated” would be the one that is more commonly referred to as the “F” word. As recruits, we are the lowest life form on the island, like horses on a farm ready to be abused in any way possible by the farmer. Even your parents don’t yelp and bark and hurl vulgarities at you and expect you to follow instructions without questions and blindly. But that is the way of life for a recruit @ Tekong.

The longing for my loved ones is very unbearable in the first few days there. Whenever I think of only being able to see them on weekends (and only approximately 24 hours) every week, I began to feel giddy and my head starts to throb. Emotional pain can lead to very physical consequences. The giddiness and headache was so unbearable that I was given 2 days of light duties, or “Attn B” for short, meaning I do not need to participate in any physical activities for 2 days. The panadol given helped, so did the medicine to help remove my giddiness, but soon after I felt worse off. I was constantly out of breath for no particular reason (I was still on “Attn B”). I went to visit the medical centre again, thinking that my childhood asthma had come back. But the X-ray showed nothing. The doctor diagnosed that I was suffering from Dysphoria, but that he kept it to himself. I only happened to see what he wrote on a piece of paper. I was then given a further 3 days of “Attn B”. After being there for slightly more than 1 week, I finally start to feel better. The physical trainings helped released the negative feelings in me too. That much for mental well being.

Living condition there was much better than that of many years ago. SAF loves to boast about that. But everything in the world had improved and became better since my father’s or grandfather’s time. How can living condition at BMTC not improve? On enlistment day our parents were given a tour of our bunks, with pure white bedsheets, an annex room with pool table and TV and air-con for games, basket ball courts, and beautiful toilet. On our first night there we were told that the bedsheets were called “Display sets”, and we had to take them off and replace them with the real one, which looks dirty and yellowish. There is no time to use the annex room (we were not allowed to use it during the first 2 weeks, and our daily free time of 1 hour is too short for us to bath, wash clothes, shit, call loved ones, and still go and play pool). Game sports are not included as part of the trainings. The basketball court was used by sergeants at night for their own basketball game, and by us in the day to do our warm-ups on.

Food doesn’t taste too bad. At times it is delicious. But it is very repetitive. We had chicken drumlets at least once a day since 7 days ago till my book out day. For lunch and dinner, everyday we eat rice. The lack of variety is sickening, but we need the food for energy. So just eat lor.

Being away from loved ones had taught me not to take them for granted. I feel that this is the most valuable lesson learnt during the 2 weeks @ Tekong. That much for now. Life @ Tekong is pretty repetitive and uninteresting. It had severely made my brain grow retarded and I find thinking and writing a very draining and tiresome task now. So I’ll just stop this entry here, and let myself enjoy my remaining minutes of freedom before booking in again.

Let the time flow, and the next weekend comes again for me to see my dear again. And the next, and the next…

Our encik told us to write an essay about our 2 weeks @ Tekong and hand it to him. Lazy to write another one, I just make some really really small changes to the above.

Military life is totally different from that of a civilian’s. The first few days there, I felt very disorientated inside. As recruits, we are like blank sheets of paper, ready to be filled with knowledge and skills about military by our commanders. However, it takes some time to get used to. Even your parents don’t shout commands at you. But that is the way of life for a recruit @ Tekong.
The longing for my loved ones is very unbearable in the first few days there. Whenever I think of only being able to see them on weekends (and only approximately 24 hours) every week, I began to feel giddy and my head starts to throb. Emotional pain can lead to very physical consequences. The giddiness and headache was so unbearable that I was given 2 days of light duties, or “Attn B” for short, meaning I do not need to participate in any physical activities for 2 days. The panadol given helped, so did the medicine to help remove my giddiness, but soon after I felt worse off. I was constantly out of breath for no particular reason (I was still on “Attn B”). I went to visit the medical centre again, thinking that my childhood asthma had come back. But the X-ray showed nothing. The doctor diagnosed that I was suffering from Dysphoria, but that he kept it to himself. I only happened to see what he wrote on a piece of paper. I was then given a further 3 days of “Attn B”. After being there for slightly more than 1 week, I finally start to feel better and was able to join back the physically trainings. The physical trainings helped released the negative feelings in me too. Physical trainings are good.
Living condition there was much better than that of many years ago, since my father’s or grandfather’s time. On enlistment day our parents were given a tour of our bunks, with pure white bedsheets, an annex room with pool table and TV and air-con for games, basket ball courts, and beautiful functionable toilets.
Food doesn’t taste too bad. At times it is delicious. But it can be very repetitive. We had chicken drumlets at least once a day since 7 days ago till my book out day. For lunch and dinner, everyday we eat rice. The lack of variety is very sian, but we need the food for energy. So just eat lor.
Being away from loved ones had taught me not to take them for granted. I feel that this is the most valuable lesson learnt during the 2 weeks @ Tekong. When we get to see our loved ones all the time, we began to take things for granted. It is with absence and not being around our loved ones that makes us miss our loved ones even more and learn how to treasure and love them even more.
The 15 days @ Tekong had come to an end. Although it is overwhelming psychologically, I am proud to say that I had lived through it and learnt many things. It is certainly a fulfilling experience.

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