It has been more than 5 months since i ORD-ed on March 27 2006. Others who served their National Service would say that it is very unusual for an NSF to miss what they did in the National Service. Some might even say that you are crazy to be missing it. I call it being passionate. Lol.

National Service to me is not a waste of two and half years of your time. To me it is how you make full use of it. Like any other NSFs I think of it at first as "What a sore it is to serve the NS." But then i decided that instead of complaining i might as well take it as a form of challenge. A learning phase in life. Everything in life is a learning process. I took it as if I am attending another form of schooling life, less the studying before advancing further.

Looking back, I now miss every single day I served during my NS. The experience is once in a lifetime (unless I decided to sign on.. Hmm.. still thinking about it). I get to see and deal with incidents ranging from the norm to the bizarre, go through rigorous training that I thought that I couldn’t do (if you think it is nothing like the army - ask some Navy dudes who went through some of our training. Some actually cried!!) and most of all working with a group of people I call family in a place I call my second home as that is where I spent my days and nights most of the time.

And now I am a volunteer in the Civil Defence. WTF I join for you might ask? - Well I would say that if you have a passion for something you will go all out doing it. Why not just sign on? - I have an ambition, a dream to be someone else that I very much would like to achieve even before I fell for the SCDF.

So guys who have yet to serve or serving, make your national service years a fruitful one. Do not think of it as a drag. Think of it as a stepping stone into not just becoming a man but also as a part of a learning process into the working life.