Tuesday, July 24, 2007

(got this from her blog- it is rather interesting so i decided to copy it over, i hope there isn't any copyright sue for this)
Well, David_lau says i should air the greviances an army boy on this blog. The boy is unfortunately out of action, and wants to convey his message that "army is a boring waste of time, cannot tahan anymore". Specifically two years. And specifically if you're not an officer.

Hmm.. Can i humbly offer a lady's angle on this subject?

Covnventionally, there have always been two generalised ways to view The Army.

You can choose to take it as a slave driver camp, a spartan living hell where they lock up hormonal boys once they turn eighteen. Exploit them at 70 cents an hour. Brainwash them into "yes sir!" robots. Programme them to obey, automated for maximum productivity. Trade in two golden years of their Youthhood, to get "ordered around like dogs". Then, justify the above, with the constant threat of a war that seems dubiously unlikely, and very far away.

WHYY. BECAUSE gar-ment say must, or get charged. DEMMIT.

Or, you can exalt it as a military haven that instills Core Values. Discipline, pride, loyalty. The challenge it throws: Are you tough enough?

So Boys Become Man. They plough headlong through sweat and mud, testosterone charged with garang MCPness. They wear their badges with Pride and Prestige. Along the way, they drop redudant emotions that hamper their efficiency. Acquire an ego, a new tolerance level to dirt, some ruggedness. A vocabulary of abbreviations like CO, OC, some colourful hokkien vulgarities. And a band of brudders they would never have met, under different circumstances.

But it remains a an issue of perspective. Does it matter whether the glass to be half full, or half empty?

There IS the glass. The metaphysical place; either the army in all its negative/positive connotations for boys, and university for girls. And then, there is the water. The experience; be it cramming notes as a student, navigating the unknowns as a sisp_ec-er/ ocs-er, doing "saikang work" as a pen-pusher clerk.

All are challenging in their own ways, be it emotionaly, physically or spiritually. Its impossible to employ a standard yardstick of personal growth to measure against.

No matter which route of army is taken, it will create memories,won't it? A sweet remniscence of the Good Ol' Days, a bitter aftertaste, a restless yearning for something more, a glorified rush of pride to one's head... all these are manifestations of nostalgia. You can't exactly compare memories. To different individuals, they ARE significant. None more deserving of excessive sympathy, laudation, mollycoddling, excuses, whinings, or battlefield recognition.

And when it comes to pangs of loneliness and homesickness, we are all equally vulnerable. No one is exactly spared from them, regardless of what phase of life we are at.

Two years are two years, for everyone. At the end of the day, I guess we are all just trying to make the best, out of what we can exert a choice over.

And with the rest that is beyond our control, we just try our best to make do.

Disclaimer's note: This girl doesn't go through The Experience of a Lifetime, so she can't give more than her two-cent's worth.

Because i will never fully empathise with our men in green. Other than the patriotic appreciation that blubbers up once August 9 creeps by. I don't have the right to dispense sympathy. Or worse still, write it off with a pretentious, ewww you sissy army boy, stop being a wimp mentality.( Girls like that deserves to be spanked. and then put through 10 rounds of BMT.)

Perhaps, the most useful i can be, is to avail a listening ear to army grouses, every now and then. And try not to give the blank look when confronted with military jargon.

Haha, credit must be given to their brave Significant Other's! Its never easy being a weekend girlfriend. To stand by your man through his hairless days, outfield camps and Sunday nights tekong book-ins.

AND. That inevitable Army Talk which arises when you put any two boys together. Man, it sounds like a foreign language to me. ( Li_ru, Pat and Hui_yi do deserve an award.)

So.. kudos to the courageous ladies. And a big salute to the boys. And yayness to the rest! I shall name this a National Day Post. :) Can't find a more fitting title, heehee.

Posted by dear benji at 11:36 PM