Yesterday was POP(Pass out Parade) day for my boyfriend. I went with a mutual friend of his to see the proud moment that he was announced as a trained soldier. Though I had to wake up early, endure the drizzling (because the idiot sergents on duty refused to let us use the umbrellas and didn't even offer to give us ponchos). Anyways, I'm a sort of soldier and so, we endured the cold. But surely, it would've been tougher for my baby boy. He had to walk/run 24 kilometers and didn't really sleep the previous day. So he was pretty tired to say the least. For me, I am pretty tired because I woke up at 5 30 to catch the first bus there when usually I wake up at 8 on weekends. If I was tired, I can't imagine how tired my poor baby was. When the time came, it was a massive crowd of people and there was about 1000+ soldiers that were on the floating platform. I tried my very best to make out where he was because I was sitting so far away, with practically everyone looking like my boyfriend from far.
I spotted him in action at least even though I didn't manage to take a photo with him afterwards and see him. I thought I wanted to surprise him but it didn't work out in the end. Knowing my boyfriend, he says I wasted my time. But, I feel I didn't. Instead, I got to feel what it is like to POP, soaking in all the intensely furious, anxious, happy and sad atmosphere that is oozing from all the recruits. Happy that they are finally done with the first phase of army, anxious for the new vocations, happy to see their friends and parents that "form the basic support group for the recruits", sad to leave all the friends and buddies they made during BMT. All these I didn't get to feel except the last one when I OOT (Out of Training) in my BMT. I left School 4 with sadness leaving my buddy, my friends and acquaintances that I made in two months of doing shit and almost everything (short of bathing and something else naughty) together. Though I left with smiles on everyone's faces (except my fucking sergent which I totally hate because he keep picking on me for no rhyme or reason), when I was leaving in the bus and on the ferry, I was just remembering the good and bad times we had together and it was a truly wonderful experience. I say NS is a waste of time save the relationships and friendships that you make from these two odd years. Of course, they endured throughout and all survived (except for tall chest 'something I call him'... he was lifted out from Tekong in a Super Puma/ Chinook to the Hospital for a gash on his face after he fell on a curb... Ouch!) My buddy: I'm sorry for leaving you half way through the journey but, my medical condition was deteriorating and I think I couldn't have done better than all of you. Though I left you, you were still independent and I guess my friendship with the other guy paided off because you two were closer and were more like buddies. In a way, he took over my place. And though I haven't yet congratulate you for becoming a sergent yourself, a big heartfelt congrats from your EX-buddy who OOT-ed! And one more thing: Remember Sergent Wxx Qx, don't be like him. Don't abuse your authority. Let your recruits follow you and respect you instead of hating and fearing you.
After the march and the display and speech and award ceremony which was all in the cold morning rain (or when the cold wind blows... when the cold wind blows), there was an interesting part where the military band came out and performed to stall time. For my friend beside me who was a regular at attending POP, he said it was something new. Indeed I found it entertaining when they played oldies and suddenly switched to pop songs like Adele's Set fire to the rain and then Lady Gaga's Bad Romance which is the video below. You can click on the link if you want to view the video. It's not much and its pretty poor quality coming from a iphone 5 camera.
https://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/de7e63daec1b11e28e8022000ae81479_101.mp4
On a side note, my teacher was there too but I didn't bump into her. Her son was in that batch too. This was a picture taken by her. Judging from it, I went when the skies were much brighter. Talking about kiasu.
No comments:
Post a Comment