Sunday, March 25, 2007
It's unlike of me to not post any entries for more than 2 weeks unless I'm really busy or tired out from either army, school or work related matters. This time it's work, army will not be spoken of in the same breath now that it's finally over. For people who think that I'm still serving the nation, glad to let you guys know that i'm no longer a nsf. I still remember the last few days of signing clearances leading right up to the collection of the pink ic itself vividly.
It wasn't an easy process to begin with so many signatures that were needed from people that you've never heard of or seen before during your 2 years of army life. It's like what this particular dxo, miss june liew, said to me and my friends when we went to see her. She mentioned that it's amazing that both sides never got a chance to see each other till the last few days of my national service. She may have said it with a tinge of sadness because I managed to detect it from the tone of her voice. Knowing her, she has probably seen countless batches of nsf come and go before her. I'm just one of the many who's seeing her because I needed her signature. That's all, no questions asked. She was a nice lady and it would have been nice to see her around in camp but it doesn't really matter now does it? The only thought in our minds then was to obtain her signature so that we could move on to the next person on our list. I don't know about my friends but it would have been have nice to stop for a chat but time wasn't on our side.
There was this unspoken fear of not being able to get all the required signatures come ord day because there was just too many on the list. When I first saw the clearance sheet and flipped to the second and third page, I was like asking myself how is it possible to really get each and everyone of them. Furthermore, 80% were like people you've never even heard or seen of. Each signature didn't come easy and knowing how big my camp is, it literally trekking across great distances. Many thanks to the ST people and various contractors who gave us a lift. Not to forget the advice from the camp people who ord in feb. They shared with me the various problems that could crop up and the ones that we might encounter along the way. Luck plays a major part for every trip you made to the camp, there can be days where you can collect a alot of signatures but there were some when you could go home empty handed. Considering how far camp is from my house, I intended to make every trip back to camp worth it.
It was indeed satisfying seeing the pages getting filled up with signatures for every trip back to camp. Even on the day that I got mobbed back to camp, I brought along my clearance sheet in the hope of getting any signature. That one signature turned out to be master lim's one. The ones that I was truly worried about was the people from hq fds and pac side. It's not a certainty that the people from these 2 sides will be in camp everyday, even if they were, they will be busy with meetings or just not free enough to meet nsfs like us. Don't even dream of getting any if you happen to hit lunchtime period, that's the worst time to get any stuff.
Come ord day itself, me and my friends were still without signaures from to's and several peoples from the pac side and it was better to be early to obtain them. Managed to catch lt ken after his meeting with co and the pac side was buzzing with people as well. They probably knew march 9th was the collection of ics and everyone was present, even for those who weren't around, there were able substitutes. Waiting for the ics was nerve wrecking because it was really a case of so near and yet so far. We had all the signatures but still have to wait for the clerk to attend to us one by one. He was really busy and he was even sweating in an air conditioned office. We were told to wait in some meeting room for our ics but we were too eager or nervous to be able to sit still and we just started walking around the office. Even one of the s1 was getting a bit frustrated with how messy the situation was becoming. I don't blame her for feeling that way and neither will I blame anyone. I was too happy to do so. It's something that she will never experience cause she's not been through ns.
Finally we were finally ushered into the meeting room once more and once the door was shut, he took out the ics from this plastic zip lock bag and started to hand it to us one by one. There was this thought going through my mind, "What if my ic isn't in the pile and still in cmpb?" Luckily, i was one of the few that he gave out first and it was good to have it in my possession once again. I can still imagine edwin's look cause he was one of the last few ones to get it. The feeling must really sucked. We were then told to sign certain forms and hand in our ffi forms and that was it. We are civilians once again! I even managed to get a look at the ic photos of my camp mates. All of us were really small and innocent back then. Who can forget the scene of me and my bronco mates handing over our ics to the sergeants in bmtc on the day of enlistment once we scaled thast flight of steps to the top floor of the stands. It's been 2 years and the condition is still the same, not broken or chipped like boon teck's one.
I thought I was one of the early ones until I saw xinhe, philip and ann tat walking out of that office before me. Understandable cause they had the camp to go to. Big occasions like these, who wants to be late? Spare a thought for hock leong as well who had to start afresh after he lost his clearance form after getting 90% filled up. Nevertheless, we are all determined to get our ics and he forged on and managed to get it at the end of the day. I've been having a good long break before ord day and it's as good as I've ord. However, clearing doesn't seem the same without your ic. You ain't free yet. I walked out of hq fds holding my ic and certificate of service with marcus, jason, mok and edwin like a free man. No burden or getting tied up anymore with army matters. There was this urge to shout "ord lor!" but I still remember I'm within camp compounds. Who wants to get into trouble come freedom day? Nobody in the right mind would want to do that. However, I eventually managed to do that after I walked through the x ray room at the camp entrance. Shouted "ord lor!" to the newbies who really have a long path ahead of them in their nsf lives. I was once like them, wondering when that day will come.
2 years of ns, every able bodied man goes through it like it or not. Everyone will survive and come out a beter man. Along the way, I've gotten to know people I don't usually talk to in camp. People like gerald and "sergeant teck yong". Till now, I still don't know his real name. He just looks like one of my previous sergeant. Whether or not I still get to see people from my camp depends on fate.
Respect to everyone of us because we've done it! ORD LOR!
