Recruit Joseph Ang

This post will be talking about my first two weeks experience in the military. I didn’t want to do this at first because I’ve to be really careful when I want to write about military stuffs.

But screw it, I’m writing this so that in the future, I can look back and reminisce about this very special two years every guy has to go through in Singapore.

On the day I enlisted into the military, I was in for a big shock. I couldn’t stand people shouting at me and I have to do what they tell me to. Unlike the outside world, I feel like I have no rights in there.

Everything you want to do, you have to ask for permission – that also includes scratching your butt if it feels itchy. Time was given for everything so you have to do everything really fast. By everything, I mean everything – even peeing.

First few days was hell for me in there. I almost went crazy. When I’m outside, people often see me as the crazy guy who likes to do things differently from people. So imagine, a guy who is already crazy going in and becomes crazy again. That’s hell.

We were given only about 7 hours of sleep if we’re lucky and we have to wake up at 5.30am every morning. Since I’m now in the Physical Training Phase (PTP), we have to do physical training the whole day for everyday. Your muscles hurts so much you can’t even move.

The two weeks confinement was really moving very slowly. Time was torturing us by moving so slowly and sometimes, it don’t even want to move at all. Food was great though, it was very much nicer than I expected.

One good thing which I like was you’ll never go hungry in there. After all the tough trainings (when I say tough, it’s tough), we were fed really well. We also had lots of water parades whereby you’ll have to drink 500ml of water each time. We drank so much that we can pee at least 5 times in two hours.

So one morning, I woke up and told myself. If I’m going to whine about it everyday, it’s going to be really bad for me. I will take things in a positive manner in whatever I do. I want to smile after every physical training activity because I know I have done my best.

Things got smoother from then onwards. Instead of looking forward to going home, I look forward to the next activity where I can give my best. Before I know it, it’s time to go home. But by then, I don’t even feel like going home already because I’m enjoying myself so much.

Lessons I learnt from here. It’s all about your mental capability. You decide how you want to feel. If you keep whining, you’re just going to whine your entire life away until you look at things the other way. Life rewards those who see things differently.

During the first 2.4km IPPT Run, I finished in 33rd out of 35 people. During one of the long distance run trainings, I told my mind that this is easy and I don’t feel tired at all. I pushed my body to the max and finished 5th. And I smiled after that because I know I’ve done my best. I enjoyed it.

The military is a fun place to learn and experience new things. It’s just how you look at it. I’m sure I can apply this theory in other aspects of life too. 6 more weeks of PTP to go before Basic Military Training (BMT) starts.