Attitude

I was in Boston with my friend Yewsong. I wrote about this treasured friendship once and he told me he almost teared when reading it. For Christmas 2003, i spent it with my brother and his room-mate Tony. A white Christmas for the first time in my life. Ahh...



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I had just completed my GCE A-levels, or pre-university, or what the West call high school. While most of Down Under will chill out for a month or so before matriculating into University in Feb, and most of UK and USA take up jobs or a gap half-year before Sept/Oct, we Singaporean males have a certain 2-yr-long National Service to look forward to.

Look forward to? Who would like to give 24 good months of their prime youth to the Nation voluntarily? Which right-minded high-achieving high-school student would like to break the momentum of his academic prowess, and "degrade" to lessons about Military Security, Field Discipline, M-16 Technical Handling, etc etc? Which out-of-school youth would like to forgo job opportunities in the workforce to earn a meager allowance of SGD 300 or so per month, doing things totally unrelated to his future work life, and sometimes having to forgo weekends, to stay in camp, guarding it, or out in the field in some exercise? Who?

No, not one.

I tell you this, as a supposed highly motivated cadet once. I tell you this, as an officer of the Singapore Armed Forces. It does not take a major or colonel to write a 5000-word thesis on "motivation of conscripts" or something like that. It does not take the reading of "Citizen Soldiers" by Stephen Ambrose to understand. The truth is out there, and all Singaporeans know it, if they bother to think and care about it.

My sergeants and friends who went to the School of Infantry Specialists (SISPEC) tell me, "Sir/Jeff... the first day i went to SISPEC was the gloomiest day of my life. There i was, in Basic Military Training (BMT) Days, giving my best, showing the best attitude i could, but i still got tufted to SISPEC, while you went to OCS and get all the glory and honour that comes along with it..."

Then i often hear the quote that so famously comforts them, something that goes like,

"It's not about the rank, it's about the respect you earn."

Most of the time, the SISPEC trainees make it through their sergeant training course. They emerge stronger and fervent, having a baseline level of pride and commitment in the things that they do. They have been trained to a high level of discipline, just like the cadets have as well. They are to be commanders in the Armed Forces, and taking command is no easy feat, albeit amidst peacetime conditions.

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There i was, with Yewsong, having our Christmas home-cooked dinner with an infantry and armour officer. We chatted and they got us interested about Army. Join the Special Ops, my bro said. They go around storming and shooting and abseil down buildings, throwing flash bangs, just like in Raven Shield: Rainbow Six. I eventually flirted with the idea for real, but that's another post. Then, they delivered the take-home statement, "It's all about the attitude. Just be positive and do your best, since you have to do it anyway."

Take it on. Bravely. Fiercely. Enjoy. And so we did.

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Now, a certain comment has lead me to deliberate further. An analogy of a distaste for food was provided. It isn't an entirely fool-proof analogy because there is intrinsic taste and then there is acquired taste. However, i do get the reader's point of view, and to each his own. I guess NS is one of those things that either you love it or you loathe it. But my initial point of view and advice for pre-enlistees out there, the attitude makes all, yes, all the difference.

Everyone is in the same predicament. Live your life to the max, or live it grudingly. As a medical student well versed (thanks to Dr. Craig Hassed at Monash University) with Health Enhancement, Psychoneuroimmunology and all that, the former will do you well for your general health at large. Seriously. Weak point? Well, i give you an example, myself.

Imagine i had gone into BMT with a distasteful attitude. I can't enjoy 7 uninterrupted months with my better half as we wait for University to begin. I can't graduate two years earlier because of NS. As i think more about it, i'm really losing out. Here i am gaining useless knowledge about military technicalities and having an "experience" no one else can get, while the females of our age are in the Universities, learning real stuff. Stuff that matters. Stuff that can get them employed in the future. Stuff that help them earn money in the future. Stuff that can help them contribute to the economy. And we? Wearing tight uniforms, marching around, singing stupid songs that are made to brain-wash us recruits, and getting punished for minutiae about our uniforms and what-not. Oh, i forgot, I don't think i like grass.. I hate sharing a common shower room with ten other guys. I dislike male camaraderie; i'd rather stick to my girlfriend and go shopping in the malls, go catch a movie or something. Besides, i agree with the edited ads.

With this attitude, i enter BMT. With my tainted glasses, i view everything and everyone in the military as i think they are. NS is a waste of time. These commanders are fierce and have no life. Please. I am smarter than you are, i boast of perfect scores at my A-levels. You are a platoon sergeant who is just over me in rank but in the society outside these fences, you are nothing compared to me, a potential high-achiever. I am biased. I admit it. I like my tainted glasses. They help me see clearer.

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Then consider the real me. I enter BMT with a positive attitude. Never mind i am going to delay entering University for another 2 years. Every male in Singapore has done it before, why not me? Perhaps i am just doing my part for the Nation. Besides, i got to do this anyway, why not do it to the best of my ability, as i always have in my studies and co-curricular activities? Also, these 2 years will be a good litmus test to see if i can really last a relationship with my better half. If she can take my absence during this time, then she probably can when i work overtime in the hospitals (i decided early on about medicine). That's right. Let's see how it goes. I get my own allowance too! SGD300!! Woah. My own cash. No longer need my parents to give me allowance... I can spend it however i like. Cool! I get to fire a rifle, throw a live grenade. How many males IN THE WORLD can say they have done that at 18? I think i'm enjoying my BMT life, true there are tough times, i get punished for things i don't think i deserve for, but i think the commanders have a reason for doing so. Let's suck it up and just get through it, as one. Esprit de Corps is strong and felt by all. I like it. I am biased too. And i admit it. But i CHOSE to be. Because, i know, i will have and want to have a more enjoyable experience.

And that's what i got.

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Let the people who have not done NS be the judge. Which is the attitude you would favour? Remember, attitude is a decision.

The rest of the posts written by Jeffrey can be found here in his blog.


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