NS posting is out. Never expected to land myself in ST. Wanted to land myself in command school, service medic or transport operator. The past two months of my BMT life have been a very great experience. Now I will be moving on to something different from the usual infantry life.

Still remember the day when I enlist as I sat at the SAF ferry terminal with my family, random thoughts of how NS life is going to be like using the scenes from "Ah Boys to Men" as a reference.

I could feel as if there were millions of cold butterfly in my stomach as I waited for the commanders to instruct everyone to board the ferry.

After getting to Pulau Tekong while waiting to retrieve our items, I looked around and could see many feeling nervous about what is NS life going to be like ahead of them. Some were already missing their love ones and can't wait to reunite with them for the final meal.

After enlisted, I realized that life in #BMT wasn't as bad as I have thought. There were some fun and memorable moments as well as some tiring moments. The field camp as a great experience to me as I have learnt to be more organized, plan my time well as well as learned to appreciate the little stuff I have in life.

Finally, we ended BMT with a 24km route march. During the march at night, it was really really tiring. As we reached East Coast Park, many of us felt like falling out as our field packs are heavier than usual with extra items and our personal belongings. We could feel shoulder muscles aching and that anti-pain cream seems to be of a little help after 16km. During the route march, whenever we saw a rest point on sight, we became motivated. You had no idea how glad we were when we got to rest.

From the 16km to the 20km was the most tiring. We were dragging our feet and thinking about the happy moments and how proud our parents will be, to force ourselves to move forward, keep on march and not fall out.

When we reached the stadium at 2:30am, the first thing we felt was a sense of achievement. Never had we thought that we could have made it. Our eyes turned watery and face puffed red. The joy and the sense of achievement could not be explained.

You are tougher than you think you are.

During the reentry, we sang out loud as jogging back to our coy spot in the parade. Joy filled us all as well as we were elated and excited. As the announcer announced over the speaker "Ladies and Gentlemen…", we removed our cap and place it on our left shoulder eagerly, "We shall present to you our train… Soldiers!". We threw our cap high into the air as the joy in us could not be described. All the hardship, sweat tears have ended for BMT. It's a day that I will never forget.

#NS #army