POP, and the block leave after

Well, what can I say? That above was me just slightly over a week ago, and now I'm here, recounting the past week and all that happened. I guess I spent my break well, but as to whether I'm ready to embrace my new vocation... I wouldn't say so much for now. The break was a great escapade from military life anyway, and though I didn't spend much of it on my personal productive pursuits, it pretty much reinforced quite a lot of my existing friendships, and I'm thankful for that. :) Now that everything's said and done, it's finally time to thumb through the past week day by day.

Saturday
... was THE day. The day of our POP. The day when we could just forget about all the silly mistakes we committed during BMT and call ourselves soldiers anyway. Or the day when we could finally look back at our journey with one another in Tekong with smiles on our faces and the knowledge that somehow, something in us changed for the better, turned us into a 'real soldier'. Regardless of everything, it was THE day. Lol.

In most cases, when the topic of POP comes to mind, it would simply be seen as the end of BMT, rather than as a thing in itself. As much as the former is true, I guess I shouldn't also disregard the entire process that led to this 'end'. Actually, scratch that — I don't want to disregard that at all, considering the fact that it was pretty painful as well, haha. Even during the 24km route march, I was subject to new experiences (to be more accurate, shades of pain) — sustained blisters on my left foot at the 9km mark (I really didn't get what happened there; thought I was already a seasoned marcher), and so I effectively limped the remaining 16km to the floating platform. And to be honest, I wasn't really able to chew on that pain very well during the later half of the march, especially when all of us had to march through this route undergoing heavy construction which was, in actual fact, 4.5km long (when all the sergeants tried to sugarcoat their words by telling us it's "3km but might seem terribly long"). At that point I was already throwing fits within myself, and I guess my facial expression wasn't exactly a sight to behold, though thankfully, who actually would've bothered about how I looked so far into the march. Nonetheless, I did enjoy some bits of the 24km, such as chatting with BK and Alvin during the first half when we were still trudging through the long stretch between Changi Coast and ECP (it was like a cherry on top of a load of crap), and the most important thing is that I didn't fall out at any point in the march. There were definitely a lot of 'everything is just pointless' moments during the march when I would just catch myself thinking that this POP doesn't warrant so much effort at all, but after stubbornly not giving up and finally being able to march into the parade square as a contingent, I found myself tearing a little. I guess that moment when all of us walked out into claps from the audience and a beautifully sunny morning was epic in the sense that it made me realise that somehow or another, it was all worth it. But really, that was quite a lot of emotion I had there that day. Not to mention, I'm also really grateful for my family and close friends who dropped by to say hi and to congratulate me. Really meant a lot! And they're also responsible for the pictures below. Aren't they awesome. (Y)

Saturday night
Spent this night in church inappropriately dressed (T-shirt, berms, flip-flops just because my blisters were still hurting like crazy). Did strange stuff that even I couldn't comprehend, such as camwhoring on beds in this bed convention at Expo. I also vaguely remember Huiyen taking Huijie across all the halls on a skateboard. And having Breezers with a couple of them at the Changi Airport T3 food court. Basically, I had a random and pretty fun night with the CG peeps, hahaha. :) A GPOY to end this off:

Sunday
This was the day when I came to terms with the hypocritical side of me, hahaha. I used to be an avid Android fan because well, I guess my HTC phone then was not bad and could at least perform its functions with an above-average standard. But as time passed and all of the phone's flaws reared their ugly heads one by one (battery life got worse, camera lens got MUCH blurrer, etc.), I began considering the idea of getting an iPhone (something I never would've considered just last year, probably because I thought it was just too overused). After much deliberation I finally got my iPhone 5 anyway (much to many of my friends' dismay at how I'm such a hypocrite LOL), and I'm proud to say that it's currently resting on my desk as my most favourite gadget at the moment. :) But above all, I really do hope this phone will last.

Monday
The day of my interview for admission into SMU School of Social Sciences. It was a rather chill day, what with waking up late into the morning and all, and frankly, I didn't have much time to fret over what to prepare anyway. But I was pretty sure I felt in-tune that day and that's probably why everything went smoothly later during the real thing. The interview was quite an eye-opener, and I appreciated the school's approach and its belief that grades aren't everything and hence they'd rather patiently interview and assess every candidate. Anyway, I was sent in along with a group of others, and we were given an article to read and write about during our first 20 minutes, after which we were further split up and sent into two different rooms with two interviewers each (professors from the university) who initiated a discussion about the article with us to get a better idea of our views/opinions and how well we could sustain them or display clarity of thought. One major takeaway from the interview was the realisation that I actually quite enjoy discussions like what we had, and I was glad that my thoughts were able to flow out of my head as coherently as possible. Whatever effort I put in during the entire thing didn't go to waste anyway, as I was notified of my offer to study in SMU two days later, much to my (pleasant) surprise. :)

After the interview, I had a brief meet-up with Michelle, Charmaine & Joie at Orchard to shop for Nobie's birthday present (which was quite a fail, hahaha). Was hungry so I bought Hot Star Chicken, which proved to be much more filling than I thought (literally). Cally joined us for dinner while Michelle left before that, and we had it at Marché (didn't have a very pleasant first experience there, because the fried chicken made me too full to have any more meat, which in turn led me to settle with this mediocre veggie pasta of theirs, lol). Walked around Cine for a bit after dinner and meeting up with Sheryl, before heading to Switch by Timbre opp SMU with Sheryl & Cally for drinks.

Tuesday
On this day we celebrated Nobie's birthday in advance. Met up with him, Michelle & Amira at nex first for a movie. Actually, all of us had so much trouble coming to a consensus about our plans for this day that everything almost fell through, but VERY thankfully, it didn't in the end. Caught 'Warm Bodies', and I have to say that it was quite lame though the ending looked pretty. And that's that.

Headed to Katong after that to meet up with everyone else for dinner @ Botak Jones. It was a good meal because everyone managed to make it in the end, and I quite like the ambience of the place — felt like an American diner, yet it was still authentically Singaporean. After dinner, Hannah & Lena went off first while the rest of us headed to somewhere (not gonna disclose it because it's such an important secret, heh) for a karaoke session that was much, much more awesome than we thought. Not only were the rooms dirt cheap, the song selections were surprisingly good. And a small room was also a blessing in disguise in the sense that we could have a lot of fun singing together and making a lot of noise. It was great, to put it simply. :)

Wednesday
Hung around town with long-time secondary school besties on what was a really idyllic day.

Thursday
Went to USS with a group of close friends from secondary school! Was a great time of catch-up and laughters, and we've all been looking forward to doing something together after such a long while. The weather was hot and hazy, though I guess it's better than rain, and we went on pretty much almost all of the rides. Of course, we didn't spare the rollercoaster rides, and those brought the most climaxes. They're especially enjoyable when you sit beside Janet or someone who's terrified of rollercoaster rides in general, HAHA.

Headed for cell group meeting at Faith's place after a long day there, and it was really power-packed, I have to say. Felt really blessed by what everyone shared, and also felt like a blessing when I shared whatever I needed to. This year's been one of breakthroughs so far, and I just believe it doesn't stop here. Talked about my offers to study in both NUS and SMU (I'm much more grateful for this than I originally thought I would be when I was still in JC — really took this for granted), my struggles with inferiority over these past few months and how I managed to shrug it off through finding constant encouragement in the Word, as well as more personal revelations, such as being the righteousness of God in Christ. All in all, I can really sense that I'm growing closer to God day by day, and that I actually want this. I've never felt such strong desire as a Christian despite having been one for quite a while already, and it feels good. Like I'm returning home, haha. Clichéd, but I think I'll elaborate on this more in a separate blog post in the future. :)

Friday
Caught 'I Give It A Year' at Shaw Lido with Nobie, Charmaine, Cally & Amira in the evening, and it was such a funny movie. If you're looking for something light-hearted and romantic to lift your spirits, and you don't exactly have an innocent sense of humour either, this movie's probably a must-watch.

After the movie, I rushed off to Jurong West for a prayer meeting with Yiren & Christon which went pretty great. It was nice catching up with the two after such a long while. Somehow, talking to them makes me feel like nothing much has changed. I guess I mean it as more of a good than a bad thing. :)

Saturday
FINALLY, I've reached the last day of the week. Yesterday night was spent with le dearest 01/13 Scorpion Platoon 4 Section 2. :) We went to Leon's house all the way at Bukit Batok, where we had an unexpectedly high-class BBQ and grill for dinner. The food was ah-mazing, though — from the fried rice to the roasted chicken to the tender grilled beef to the fruity desserts to the Singapore Slings to the... everything. Really have his parents to thank for such an enjoyable night with my roommates of 4 months, as well as 2LT Isaac and 3SG Nat. We ended things off with a game of Werewolf (it was all the rage in my bunk during the last week of BMT after our playing cards got confiscated) and well, I guess it was pretty fun and idyllic in retrospect. :) Wishing them all the very best for their vocations!

So... yes. A fulfilling week this has been, especially when it comes to keeping up with the people who matter. I won't elaborate too much on my posting for now; just gonna go for it tomorrow and hopefully return with some interesting news at the end of this week.

Before I end, thought I'd let this be a note-to-self:

Matthew 5:13-16
New International Version (NIV)

Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.