This is going to be a rather long entry. There are quite a few things to talk about and the subjects vary so much emotionally. I shall try as best as possible to group them together but the discrepancy between time and emotions will no doubt make that a challenge.
Firstly, let me start off light by declaring that I finally got my hiking boots! Its from Columbia and it was on 50% off!
Hmm I’m supposed to take close combat training lessons for the whole this coming week but I’m on duty right smack on Tuesday. Wonder how that is going to work out.
Anyway on to more somber stuff, I’m sure most of you have heard of the military plane crash in Taiwan into a military camp that killed two SAF personnel and injured 10 people, including two of which are in critical condition. Here comes the first bombshell that makes it personal.
They are from my unit.
I don’t really know the two guys who passed away but I know I’ve seen Isz around camp and I think its rather tragic that someone who has been in the same unit for quite some time is dead while similarly serving his NS. Think that’s bad? Here is the second bombshell.
I was supposed to go for that very same training exercise but I was switched only a few weeks prior to it and was rescheduled to go for it in November instead.
I could have been there at the site of the incident itself. God knows if it could have been me instead.
I received a call last night at about 2353 from camp asking me to report today morning at 0800. It was for a blood donation drive for those casualties from Taiwan. There wasn’t that many people to begin with, roughly about 40-50 from my company. What got me disappointed was that when the group was asked if they had any contraindications in donating blood like being sick for the past three weeks, more than half said that they did. I’m not sure if they were being truthful or if they just wanted to go home but when less than half of the original group was left, I just really felt disappointed. What compounded that feeling was the smiles and smirks on those who left as if they scored a victory over the rest of us that stayed behind to donate blood.
Anyway on a different topic altogether, inspiration has been hitting me repeatedly to write this prose which has been in my mind for quite a long time. The most unlikely source came from watching Spiderman with on Saturday. I would reveal what exactly is it about but generally, it is regarding societal pre-assumptions. It is just a draft and I have only read it over once. Despite this, I think that sometimes, the rawest of output is the most pure even though it might contain typos and small mistakes.
Rough Kids
We didn't like playing with them. They played rough and didn't do well in school. They are rough kids. Not big and intimidating but big and round with a certain show of unkemptness no matter how well they tried to dress (which wasn't often!). Parents didn't like their kids mixing with them. Bad influence they said. We were only too happy to comply. He had once grabbed my toy a long time ago and played with it as if it was his own. Imagine that!
A familiar figure came up the stairs of the wonderfully comfortable bus that I was on, during my journey to school. Red shirt, with its slightly stretched fabric paired together with well fitted jeans. It was him. Knowing that there was no running away, I raised my hand ever so slightly. A smile plastered on his face acknowledged my greeting and he sat beside me. We made small talk and I gave a small sigh of relief, when he alighted, slouching comfortably in my seat again.
Arms crossed and a frown lined my face. It was not the queue that was irritating me but rather, the slow girl behind the counter with her fake thinned eyebrows and buttons on her shirt which threatened to pop under the pressure of her bulk. With a small sigh, I wondered if it was the wrong time to satisfy my craving for fast food. Staring impatiently into space, I caught her taking a second or two to take a look at me, a sharp change in facial expression to that of curiosity, breaking the monotony of the wait. A second or two, and it was gone. When my turn finally came, shock greeted me when my name was acknowledged. Not that sharp lightning jolt of shock but rather, a small unsettling feeling of a small change in the status quo. Glancing briefly at her nametag sufficed in the realisation that it was her. The passing of the years, like old leaves being rustled gradually by the persistent winds often hides what we do not take notice of. With a cursory greeting followed by a hasty and slight polite control of my food choice, I grabbed the dark brown plastic tray and took care in choosing a seat away from the glare of the counter. The meal was somehow less palatable now but I ensured that I finished every last bit of it, not being in any particular rush. Stacking the used utensils and serving plates neatly on my tray, I headed towards the door while remembering to say and wave goodbye to which I got an unnaturally small goodbye in return.
They were rough kids but they were more gracious in their approach than most. Society shunned them but they waited with open arms. They were born into a world that didn't smile kindly on them. The harsh grip of growing up in a household with a mother working hard to fill a void left by a father a long time ago meant that certain things which was considered normal in a regular household was either a luxury or even unknown to them. Shunned by society due to their differences was never their choice. Yet, born in an unjust world, they had to be resilient. They had to be rough. They are rough kids. They are rough kids because they have to be rough.
Firstly, let me start off light by declaring that I finally got my hiking boots! Its from Columbia and it was on 50% off!
Hmm I’m supposed to take close combat training lessons for the whole this coming week but I’m on duty right smack on Tuesday. Wonder how that is going to work out.
Anyway on to more somber stuff, I’m sure most of you have heard of the military plane crash in Taiwan into a military camp that killed two SAF personnel and injured 10 people, including two of which are in critical condition. Here comes the first bombshell that makes it personal.
They are from my unit.
I don’t really know the two guys who passed away but I know I’ve seen Isz around camp and I think its rather tragic that someone who has been in the same unit for quite some time is dead while similarly serving his NS. Think that’s bad? Here is the second bombshell.
I was supposed to go for that very same training exercise but I was switched only a few weeks prior to it and was rescheduled to go for it in November instead.
I could have been there at the site of the incident itself. God knows if it could have been me instead.
I received a call last night at about 2353 from camp asking me to report today morning at 0800. It was for a blood donation drive for those casualties from Taiwan. There wasn’t that many people to begin with, roughly about 40-50 from my company. What got me disappointed was that when the group was asked if they had any contraindications in donating blood like being sick for the past three weeks, more than half said that they did. I’m not sure if they were being truthful or if they just wanted to go home but when less than half of the original group was left, I just really felt disappointed. What compounded that feeling was the smiles and smirks on those who left as if they scored a victory over the rest of us that stayed behind to donate blood.
Anyway on a different topic altogether, inspiration has been hitting me repeatedly to write this prose which has been in my mind for quite a long time. The most unlikely source came from watching Spiderman with on Saturday. I would reveal what exactly is it about but generally, it is regarding societal pre-assumptions. It is just a draft and I have only read it over once. Despite this, I think that sometimes, the rawest of output is the most pure even though it might contain typos and small mistakes.
Rough Kids
We didn't like playing with them. They played rough and didn't do well in school. They are rough kids. Not big and intimidating but big and round with a certain show of unkemptness no matter how well they tried to dress (which wasn't often!). Parents didn't like their kids mixing with them. Bad influence they said. We were only too happy to comply. He had once grabbed my toy a long time ago and played with it as if it was his own. Imagine that!
A familiar figure came up the stairs of the wonderfully comfortable bus that I was on, during my journey to school. Red shirt, with its slightly stretched fabric paired together with well fitted jeans. It was him. Knowing that there was no running away, I raised my hand ever so slightly. A smile plastered on his face acknowledged my greeting and he sat beside me. We made small talk and I gave a small sigh of relief, when he alighted, slouching comfortably in my seat again.
Arms crossed and a frown lined my face. It was not the queue that was irritating me but rather, the slow girl behind the counter with her fake thinned eyebrows and buttons on her shirt which threatened to pop under the pressure of her bulk. With a small sigh, I wondered if it was the wrong time to satisfy my craving for fast food. Staring impatiently into space, I caught her taking a second or two to take a look at me, a sharp change in facial expression to that of curiosity, breaking the monotony of the wait. A second or two, and it was gone. When my turn finally came, shock greeted me when my name was acknowledged. Not that sharp lightning jolt of shock but rather, a small unsettling feeling of a small change in the status quo. Glancing briefly at her nametag sufficed in the realisation that it was her. The passing of the years, like old leaves being rustled gradually by the persistent winds often hides what we do not take notice of. With a cursory greeting followed by a hasty and slight polite control of my food choice, I grabbed the dark brown plastic tray and took care in choosing a seat away from the glare of the counter. The meal was somehow less palatable now but I ensured that I finished every last bit of it, not being in any particular rush. Stacking the used utensils and serving plates neatly on my tray, I headed towards the door while remembering to say and wave goodbye to which I got an unnaturally small goodbye in return.
They were rough kids but they were more gracious in their approach than most. Society shunned them but they waited with open arms. They were born into a world that didn't smile kindly on them. The harsh grip of growing up in a household with a mother working hard to fill a void left by a father a long time ago meant that certain things which was considered normal in a regular household was either a luxury or even unknown to them. Shunned by society due to their differences was never their choice. Yet, born in an unjust world, they had to be resilient. They had to be rough. They are rough kids. They are rough kids because they have to be rough.
posted by throatinfection at 10:18 PM
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