It's Complicated

5 Day Break

Coming off 16 months of service I blossomed from an immature young boy into half a man who has yet to fully take on the role of such. Putting myself through circumstances I’ve never had the slightest thought ever, I conquered them all and here I stand tall in front of everyone.

I may not be as perfect and capable as the officers partly because I did not make the cut to be part of the Officer Corps. But as we each play our roles to make things flow, we are all of utmost importance to the organization. What I partly am unable to understand is how one can flaunt their highly regarded appointments and using them to cement their social status. This occurred to me when I encountered one of the local university’s confessions that girls look for guys with the newly defined 5 Cs - Cash, car, credit and cadets (officer) - or rather 4 in this case. Okay. Do officers actually mean a lot? They are just recognized for their ability to show leadership skills at situations which matter, which hence made them one to begin with. Personally I do not begrudge so this is just a particular thought and that army officers don’t really matter when you eventually leave the force. It’s just that additional quality of leadership which stands out which can easily be nullified with a poor display of attitude and oneself.

Today marks the third day of my five days (incl wkend) break and here I am sitting at a Starbucks outlet spending time by myself with a cup of coffee and the iPad. Not that I did not want to spend quality time with the family but my mother now has her own group of friends who she does things with daily. That’s actually a great thing because I wouldn’t want her to be cooped up at home using her iPad and watching her own library of dramas everyday.

First day of the break was spent going to JB with my army friends and what else can I say? It was such a fulfilling trip and given my not-so-frugal nature, I unknowingly spent 100$ there - mostly on food. The remaining was actually spent on contact lenses and a new Mario iPad casing. You can’t entirely bemoan my spendthrift nature because things are really so cheap there as compared to Singapore!! As a result I just kept on spending unconsciously until my wallet has a few 1$ Ringgit notes remaining and that was when I began conscious. And so my vain self showed up when I was in JB and hence the splurge. But as I always say, money is meant to be spent as long as you have the ability to and that fiscal reserves are available at hand.

Second day was nothing much. Accompanied mum to market for lunch, proceeded to collect a new passport and went to teach tuition was all I did. Not sure if I’m old - I just striker 20 a couple weeks ago, but I was SOOO exhausted after tuition and collapsed after 8. The lack of proper sleep during the weekends probably has taken its toll on me as I occasionally have overnight mahjong sessions - those that I’ll die for - on Fri/Sat nights for entertainment purposes.

As they always say good and happy times don’t last and here we are, already in the middle of a long break. Unknowingly reality is (once again) about to set in and the mundane Mon-Fri camp days is about to return. On a positive note, I only have six months left on my service duration and I have about a month worth of Offs and Leave to clear, making time even shorter than it already is. So all I can tell myself daily is to endure the nonsenses from irritating superiors - though they are already pretty good and kind - and appreciate the remaining time with my batch mates and juniors as we may never cross paths again when this Service journey comes to a (good) closure. Times in the brigade have been very good and kind to me mostly so there isn’t much to lament except for some occasions but they’re hardly worthy of a mention. Life’s still pretty good.

I only have one follower who knows me personally hahaha so if you were to read this lengthy post don’t judge me and just keep it to yourself because I am not such a touchy and full of thought person if you were to know me personally. I am an anything-also-okay kind of person who doesn’t seem to care about the most trivial things in life so this is just the other side of me when I am left by myself to appreciate and reflect about the happenings of the daily life.

Everything has a closure of its own and this post too. But it should be a temporary one because of my new iPad, i may frequent it often to key in some reflections of the mundane life. Totally cannot wait for things to spice up a little :3

Love,
Sean.