#command school

Eight weeks is all it takes.

Yet at this point in time, eight weeks do not seem as fleeting as I had imagined before, not to mention eight weeks of corrective training. [ six, now that we've skipped two in light of positive circumstances ]

Life in command school is intriguingly different from life as a recruit on island Tekong. The inherent variation in values expected of specialists contributes significantly to the mould that we are to be shaped in.

Aspiring specialists have to be driven and unyielding, but also flexible at the same time. Demanding calls, they certainly are, for the jaded soldiers in service. [ though not so much for those who have found their calling in serving the nation, and are ever ready to don their immensely heavy battle vests weighed down by their responsibilities as a trained soldier ]

How does one survive? [ note that we speak not of trials and tribulations or of pain and hardship, but of the ceaseless and cyclical routine of dreary training activities ] How does one pull through an arduous journey of six months here in cadet school? We might never figure that out until the day we leave these gates with our chevrons and them new-found responsibilities.