The decision is finally reached to finalise who are staying and leaving. Possibly my last conversations with those who are going to Changi , all I can say to them is to have a positive mindset. Do what you are supposed to do , and don't do what you are not supposed to do. The chances of people faulting you will thus be minimized. For those who made the cut , we seniors have begun training them by bringing them out for crane jobs to teach them signalling. I have been having my fair share of training them intensively , especially my 2 admin successors whom I have higher expectations. This is because I am going to handover to them and they are going to take over me after I ORD in 54 more working days (without excluding my leaves and offs yet) as of this date. Hopefully by January , I can retreat to an advisory role , do my clearance and clear my offs and leave/s in peace before getting my pink IC in early February.

I find myself more tired these days in camp because a typical day in camp will be teaching my admin guys admin stuffs , followed by a job/s which normally I will bring two juniors along if my other colleagues happened to be busy or they just finished other jobs and need to rest. I will drive and operate the crane , yet at the same time directing the juniors how to signal because they are still unsure in some ways or another. That is why I have to be even more alert than usual if I am the only senior around during jobs. In the afternoon will be orientation of driving the crane for those who completed Class 5 course. I don't believe in putting up a condescending attitude whenever I teach/tell the juniors what to do , but rather , more as a friend to guide them. Naturally , at this stage they will still be timorous to a certain extent in whatever they do. I was once like them , very blur and committing mistakes very often. That's why I try to put myself in their shoes and even when I do point out their mistakes , I put it in a more euphemistically way unlike those saddistic sergeants/officers in BMT who have no qualms in mortifying recruits. To their credit , the majority are willing to learn with alacrity while some still needs to be pushed a little to catch up with the rest.

I had embraced myself upon my return to Tuas that I will surely faced a barrage of questions from people asking me how was life at Changi , in particularly the juniors. This is not surprising , consider that it is yet to be finalised who is staying and leaving. Hence , I prepared myself mentally and told them that life at Changi was ok and I treated it as a reunion with my fellow Changi friends. Well , that is not a lie. Somehow they are not satisfied with the answers and continue to ask more , in which I responded that it will not be fair if my views alone are taken into consideration to judge whether Changi is heaven or hell. This is because all along I am stationed at Tuas right from the start and definitely I will still be bias more towards Tuas. I advised them that regardless of which place they end up in , the paramount thing is to have a positive mindset. Do what you are supposed to do , and don't do what you are not supposed to do. Yes I know , it sounds like a rehearsed answer.

"Senior , why are you always so politically correct ? " a junior asked.

Oh well.

My answers seem to obfuscate the orthodox view that Changi is worse off than Tuas , and their attempts to seek answers from me to corroborate this assumption (or a fact shared among the seniors) are futile. Frankly , I don't think is viable that they are to develop an ambivalent attitude towards Changi , even when those who are chosen to go there are not even posted there yet. If they do so , life will be miserable. These guys still have more than a year to serve and rather then develop a negative mindset , why not choose to be positive and think of the brighter side? There are always pros and cons no matter what , just like there are two sides of a coin. Nobody can fault you if you are doing the correct stuffs within your job scope. Of course there may be some people who may purposely picked on you , but well , don't take it to heart. Things that we do in these two wasted and economically unproductive years reflect on what a guy who has to go through national service should be doing , but things we do after ORD reflects on what we will do and subsequently what we will become. I may whined about my pathetic life being bounded to the nation now , but I don't feel extremely negative and still do what I am supposed to do. It is not a matter of choice , but rather , is an obligatory duty.

I am optimistic that life after this phase will still be bright.