A while after I ORD-ed, I realised: NS is like prison. You know the saying that inmates only remember two days of their stay: the day they entered the prison and the day they were released. Yup, being an NSF is like that and ORD is like the day of your release. Here’s how I felt since then or will feel in the years to come.
ORD LO! Finally, after 2 years of going through all the crap your officers/sergeants have meted out, doing dumb things in the name of regimentation and living away from home. ORD is the day of your release, the unshackling of the chains to your freedom. It’s just so surreal, like a reawakening from a deep slumber. It’s so hard to believe that those 2 long years are finally over and you’ve survived. Just like Rocky Balboa, you’ve taken every hit that they threw your way but you’re still standing like a champ, feeling absolutely euphoric during your ORD parade.
Finally, with no more restrictions on what you can or cannot do, you are your own free man. No more “behave in a soldierly manner, you are in uniform” or ” you cannot do this as it will spoil the image of the SAF”. It’s time to take a break from military life and yea, it’s time to rip it up! Most of your friends are going travelling overseas, be it a short 4 day trip to Bali with your army mates, a snowboarding trip in snowy Japan, or a long 17 day family trip to USA, land of the free. The point is, you be enjoying everything that post-ORD life has to offer, exercising your freedom of speech and individual autonomy like a CIVILIAN! What better use for some of that army monthly allowance you’ve saved up during those 2 years. Go on, you deserve it!
C’mon, back to reality. Unless you already have an internship coming up or are studying overseas soon after ORD, you’re bound to have lots of free time (and not enough money). Basically you’re unemployed, you’re broke. Without the army’s already little monthly allowance, you need to find a way to sustain yourself financially, like a real adult. Face it, sitting around all day ain’t gonna to pay the bills and not everyone is sitting on some multi-million trust fund, living and partying like a socialite. Hence, begins the job hunt.
As time slowly passes, ORD-ing starts to lose that novelty. Being a civilian has become part of life and it gradually slides into normality, simply saying “you’ve completed your Civilian Conversion Course”. Your purpose has changed, from “I’m gonna to practice the low rope to help my section pass VOC” to “I’ll learn this skill because it opens doors for me” or ” I need to study this text so that I can do well in school” Mean while, you occasionally reminisce about the days where all you had to do was to keep fit, hone some war fighting skills and hangout with your army buddies once in awhile. Army then becomes just another phase you go through in your life.
Years later, all guys will receive a letter from Mindef recalling us for reservist. I have yet to experience that but judging from the reservist personnel I spoke to while in camp, reservist is a time where they can take a week long break from work and get to reunite with their army buddies. Well, hopefully it will be true when my turn comes.
After those two years you will realise that even though we count down to ORD day in and day out, we all will feel slightly nostalgic. You’ll miss seeing your friends, having heart to heart talks in bunk when you cannot sleep and laughing about the funny shit that happens around. No matter how hard life was in your vocation or unit, everything is better when you realise that your friends are all suffering together with you. ORDLO!!
Submitted by Lin Jiachao
