Another batch of people have just ORDed. Looking back, my time in NS honestly feels...like a bad dream long gone.
I don't even mean this in any bad way, like hating on NS or anything (come on I ORD alr haha why bother), but it really is how it feels. A dream because it really feels like a past life. I feel more connected and in tune with my IB days than my NS days really. Two main reasons I see for this are the vastly different lifestyles and the relationships or lack of it formed.
And a bad dream instead of just a plain normal dream because of those same two reasons above I suppose.
It's interesting but what seems to stick out most to me now in my NS days was the book ins, the stay ins and the bunks. Not enciks, not trainees nor trainers. I didn't even think that much about it when I wrote my reflections of an ORD personnel, but somehow it seems like it had one of the greatest effects on me. I can't quite imagine how I got used to that lifestyle now that I get to stay at home comfortably and having control over my own time and the things I do.
Perhaps my memories are distorted, for I don't recall it being as bad as it feels now. But really, when I think NS right now, the first thing that comes to my mind is not the green and brown of outfield but the grey, bland, boringness of my bunk.
Everything else is fuzzy. No particularly fond memories, no close relationships forged (most people now seem to be but shadows from a distant past). It would be different in other units I guess where you stick with the same people all the way, as compared to being with totally different people every three months.
In comparison, despite the tough times in school life, I have fond memories of the people, the friendships forged that persist till this day, the teachers, the students, the little moments that had happened.
So I ponder about the two years in NS, but its but a void, and I feel a little wistful that it would be so.
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