Embarking into Officer Cadet School

Tomorrow is the day I report into OCS, after 2 weeks of block leave. TBH, I was initially feeling very unready, as I was sick and feeling unwell cos of my stomach ache and diarrhea, and my chest infection is not helping. I am already totally adjusted to civilian life, and now I'm about to adjust again into an OCT for 2 weeks. But after watching some videos on YouTube about the making of an officer, I felt more motivated and purposeful. I will remind myself that I am here in OCS for a reason and not by chance. I will make it count.

I'm going to share my reasons why I wanted to go OCS. Of course, like many others, I questioned myself whether it would be worth it. Whether 9 months of hell is worth the rank. Thru BMT, I realise my mental resilience has to be worked on. One of the key reasons I probably want to go OCS is because my bro has been thru it, and he just ORD few weeks ago, and if he can do it, I felt I could do it too. I wanna do my family proud like how he did, and display my sword next to his.
Another key reason is I want to develop myself. This course will teach me to be a better leader, and throughout my education I have taken various roles of leadership. I actually feel that being a leader is my thing, and I want to do it well.
I want to be stronger, and hopefully OCS will help me through it.
There are also other reasons like higher pay, holding a higher authority, being mainly involved in planning (which I prefer), the exclusive social night, and value you bring to yourself.

At the end of the day, I just hope I will do my best, and do well, and improve myself continuously. All these are my sincere words. I want to say now that, I am ready - to lead, to excel, to overcome.

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3 Most Valuable Lessons in BMT

The first most valuable lesson I have learnt in BMT is leadership - how to lead a group of men, where some may be hard-headed. I was given a chance to be the platoon IC and during my short stint as an IC, I have learnt that to lead is easy, but to lead effectively is a challenging task. I have learnt that as a leader, you have to be an exemplary role model, and that means doing things consistent to your principles and values. It also means taking up more responsibilities and not an opportunity to slacken off. Leadership becomes challenging when people are at their worst ends, and do not cooperate with you, and that is when you need to convey your messages and intentions effectively and empathise with the lot. Leading is also not just getting things done, but also motivating men under you to push themselves to the best of their abilities, and not give up in times of hardship. In BMT, we are all guys and in this environment, people may try to overpower one another to rise as an alpha. Thus I have learnt that it is important to earn the respect of your men before you are able to lead them effectively. It is also essential that we do our best to know our stuffs before men can  trust themselves to listen to us.

The second most valuable lesson that BMT has taught me is discipline. BMT is regimented and it is expected of us to maintain a high level of militiary disciple. Disobeying them will mean having to deal with the ramifications. Just as in the outside world, discipline is not easy to maintain as we tend to procrastinate and derail. BMT has taught me that we have to get things done even though we don't feel like it. I have learnt that discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most. Through little things like hand-washing our own clothes and ensuring high standards and cleanliness of our bunk, I have learnt to exercise self-discipline, which will translate to a better me in the outside world in dealing with any kind of responsibilities and getting down to them.

The thrid most valuable lesson I have learnt is the importance of giving. The cameraderie and brotherhood I have found in BMT have taught what selflessness is as I saw how my band of brothers sacrifice for each other. In times of need, we have to be there for each other, and encourage one another. It is indeed easy to slacken off and not bother, but it is important to always bear in mind that there are people around who needs you and your best.

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NS Field Camp Reflection

This is my reflection for my NS assignment and I thought it would be good to copy paste here so I see it in the future (did it on the NS tablet)

As most of us have watched Ah Boys to Men or have friends who been through field camp, we expected it to be the toughest part of BMT and prepared to toughen ourselves up for it. There are various ups and downs thoughout this camp.

One thing that didn't go well is the weather. It rained almost everyday but thankfully none over the night. I regretted not ziplocking my ziplocks properly which resulted in some items getting drenched - this was indeed an experience to be remembered, where I was flabbergasted upon seeing my field pack completely immersed in a pond of muddy water in my shell scrape. But to be honest I was pretty disappointed about only being able to sleep in my shellscrape for only a night as I found it cosy. There was frequent Cat 1 which disrupted our practices and activities, but these are moments I savour as I munched my snacks away and took short restful micro naps. Besides the torrential rain, there was the daily scorching sun burning down on us every afternoon, leading to a bunch of us suffering from heat injury. I had high temperatures almost daily as high as 38.6 deg C which made me feel fatigue and dizzy, but I never visited the medic as I wanted to participate in the IFC practices which i needed. Those times are indeed tough for me as I felt weak and struggled to keep up as much as I can. It was disappointing for me as I wanted to give my best and push myself. Another thing that didn't go as well was how our coy's movements were sloppy and a handful did not bother enough to express a sense of urgency. Everyone is indeed tired from the whole ordeal but we still had to meet timings. We also had an unfortunate incident of a platoon mate losing his rifle's magazine in the evening when it was pitch dark but we managed to find it after combing the forested areas systematically. If that was not enough, another of my section mate lost his magazine too during the battle course but managed to find by himself, saving the trouble of getting the whole platoon to search together.

Moving on to things that went well, I would say shellscrape digging was easier for us as it rained the day before and previous coy actually went there before. However it still wasn't easy to complete it and majority of us did not finish within the alloacted 3h. The individual field craft test also went pretty well for us as most of us passed it without doing a second attempt, despite having our practice time cut short due to lightning alert. It was also encouraging how each of us helped one another during hard times and carrying the jerry cans from point to point.
I feel that what we could have done better was moving faster from point to point as well as meeting the timings stated. We should also care more for each other as this is the hardest when everyone is shag and people become more self-centred. To go fast, we go alone; to go far, we go together. I also think we should work more on our resilience and don't give up easily especially when met with the tiniest hurdles during our hardest times.

I think my greastest takeway from field camp is knowing more about myself and my limits when i am faced with challenges which pushes me out of my comfort zone. Life only begins when we step out of our comfort zone and this cannot be denied as only when we challenge ourselves do we grow as a person and get stronger. I tend to panic easily when faced with a challenge and will not be able to stay calm, thus affecting my ability to carry out that task. Thus, I need to work on my composure. I need to improve my mental endurance too as I tend to fumble when I feel weak from heat injury or physical exhaustion. This field camp has gave me much discomfort in many ways but I am thankful for that as they made me stronger. Yes those times are tough, but tough times don't last; tough people do.

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My ACJC Experience (Part 2)

Education
So here comes the important question: How is the education like in ACJC? After all, it is one of the most important aspects when it comes to choosing a JC right? As widely known, its niche is in arts as compared to science.

Based on my experience, the chemistry, math, econs and GP department are all good, but that does not equate to good teachers. For me my econs and GP tutors really suck lol but surprisingly they are my best performing subjects most of the time. As for physics, based on forums and word-of-mouth, it is true that the department is not that good, but I got the best tutor in AC as she has 25 years of teaching experience and is the national physics olympiad coach.

To make it clearer, the resources given by the physics department are sufficient and sometimes pretty good. But unless it is my tutor lecturing for the lectures, the lectures are pretty bad to me as they don't really explain well enough when teaching. It is probably a vast difference from the tuition centres you go to.

What also annoys me is how almost all the departments accept GP give suggested solutions for A levels. For econs, I only got 2 years of TYS solutions from my tutor, screened in class, while for chem and physics, we are expected to follow the erroneous solutions from the publishers. After discovering how bad the physics solutions by shinglee were, my physics tutor screened to us her own solutions for some of the years but did not allow phototaking or whatsover. I mean why not be like HCJC or RJC where they give out standardised solutions for the whole cohort? As a result I ended up with like 3 or 4 physics solutions book from different publishers cos i couldn't trust any one completely.

My deepest regret in JC would be not getting any tuition, thinking I might be able to get As with my own effort and self-studying. My prime reason was that I did not want to burden my parents financially, and honestly, I thought I could do it, with just the help of external resources (if needed) and a little discipline.

But no. Every test just seems to prove me otherwise; I just wasn't smart enough. And it was only until the revision nearing A levels then I got the sudden realisation of how useful tuition can actually be, and lift you off the burdens you have during revision when you struggle to figure out a concept or your mistake. I would get chem tuition if I could turn back time because I just couldn't do well enough for an A. I mean, just think about investing in tuition for your 'A's and then with these grades, get a scholarship which will relieve you of the uni fees; an investment!

And if things just can't get any worse, I did not pass my MYE; I failed all my 3H2s. Worst is, I had the WHOLE JUNE to study for it! But actually no, I was involved in Ultimate Interjc in the first week and only had the last week to do some real revision after all the catching up and tutorials I had to do. I was really disappointed with my results, as it was my first time not making the passing mark.

But well, what really gave me a wake up call was when 2-3 weeks before A levels, my physics tutor was telling me that she thinks I can still get a B for A level physics. Like what even... I was aiming for an A sigh. And she was telling me how my other classmates are already finishing tons of revision papers while I have only done 1 or 2 which I used them to consult her. Then I knew, my A levels prep is screwed up.

If I had to sum up JC education, it is that it is really tough af. Juggling everything is a real struggle, and you got prioritise what you want. The academic rigour is not to be underestimated. A'level results are coming out this Friday, and I really don't know what to expect. I really wish I will be happy, and satisfied. Let all my efforts be paid off.

Memories
With that said, did I regret joining squash and ultimate which could have been a cause of such results? No. In fact, they are the best thing that happened to me in AC. And if I never I had joined them, I can't imagine how my life in AC would be like; I would totally dread school.

Ultimate. How do i even begin. The first thing that comes to my mind is FAMILY. The people there are ever so supportive, and everyone comes for trainings out of sheer passion. We travel 30 min every training to west coast park from school, train till lights out, train in rain and mud, train with our heart. ACJC Ultimate is not a CCA in ACJC, and it is just an interest group. Now, the school wants us to change our club's name so that we wont misrepresent them. But our heart will always remain the same, as one.

Due to my cca commitments and the A div season in 2015, I missed a lot of ultimate trainings. I returned after season and trained for IJC in June. It was an intense fight and competition. Attaining the 4th place, we had our fair share of regrets on the field. I could still vividly remember how some of us teared during our debrief, including myself; it was truly a moment where I felt thankful to be part of this amazing team with wonderful memories shared, and I hope our juniors will continue to fight hard and return stronger.

Squash is a sport I thoroughly enjoy, and I was glad I was given opportunity to take up this sport, and even a chance to be a captain for my team. We trained really hard and trainings and the PTs are always intense, draining my energy and leaving little for school work. Alas, we got a 5th place, the plates champion, breaking the record of being in the top 4 constantly for the past 9 years ever since we started.

Even though the team wasn't exactly the most bonded CCA, I met great juniors, had an awesome coach which made me enjoy trainings, and even made a close bro there :) And of course, the squash girls too. Although we only became closer after our cca season, I'm glad at least we did. Special mention of celery who is the pillar of this group HAHA.

One of my best memories in AC is from CCAAB camp in nov 2014, which is a camp for leaders from ccas and houses to prepare for the upcoming leadership in the year ahead in J2. There are several elements in the camp similar to what occurs in NS, such as the changing parade. But it is definitely an experience unforgettable.

All the moments in the 3D2N camp felt surreal - how we encouraged each other and worked as a team, and the insightful inputs by all leaders alike. I learnt a lot as a leader from this camp. We even bought our own shirt which says Franklin in the front! For this, I'm thankful for AC too.

Funorama is also one of the most fun event which happens bi-annually in AC! Can you believe we actually made 700K+ from that fun fair? All the efforts put into raising funds for our fun fair when we were selling food and all sorts in school were interesting as people ooze out every creativity they have. We sold ramly burgers and managed a game stall as a class. Every class had to manage a food and game stall each and it really wracked our brains at the start for ideas! Anyway this year I'm coming back to funorma not as a stall runner but as a participant! On 2nd April! Do come down!!

Green Arrow /who lives in a shit. We all really have come a long way, dated all the way back to OG days. Fortunate to have met y'all, having someone to turn to in these tough 2 years. Hope our outing to USS will come true one day aha.

And also, BBB. Darren and Aaron are also in this clique but we don't have a full strength photo. Somehow expanded when nearing A levels LOL but yes lots of fun times with them, and certainly in the future too :)

Lastly, 2SB2. Spent 2 years with them studying for the most dreaded A levels. It was a fun class tbh, with a diverse mix of people from different backgrounds. Sad to say, I wasn't bonded to the class, probably due to my overbearing nature of  'work before play', where I prioritise studies a lot, and often chose academics over social interactions. One thing I realise is, once the period to get close to the people around you is over, you have missed it and you can never get it back. There is always this window period where strangers and even just friends go through interactions to determine the social group dynamics and cliques form. Being a 'thinker' person rather than 'feeling' person, I can neglect relationships. But nevertheless, I still made 1 or 2 close friends from my class :)
"Your Commander personality can sometimes leave you feeling lost and alone. Relationships with friends, colleagues and partners can be tricky to maintain, despite your good intentions. But when you do make a connection, it’s usually a strong, rewarding bond." 
This extract from my personality page is rather apt and it explains all that has occurred.

Discovering myself
At the start of JC, we were made to do the MBTI personality test to help group ourselves for PW. We were somehow only given our profiles at the start of J2. After reading mine, I was rather amazed by its accuracy, but did not pursue further.

Later into the year, celine talked about how true her personality is and that intrigued me to read up about mine online again. I was taken aback that more than 90% of what is said about me is accurate. It all makes sense to me. About my nature. About how I have been acting.

I'm a rather insensitive person, and from then onwards I realise how I always have the urge to make insensitive remarks out of fun. But knowing myself better has given me a chance to work on this flaw and be more conscientious. I was really immersed in knowing myself deeper. But all is too late to change anything as it is already approaching the end of year for us all.

One thing which annoys me most, and was pointed out explicitly, is inefficiency. Not talking about small stuffs, but big stuffs like academics. Like I began to realise how I often curse in GP and econs lesson, lamenting about the tutors' incapability at teaching and explaining.

Anyway it felt really good to know your friends' personality too and then read it up to realise they match too. Idk why but I always analyse people and things. But the year of 2015 is definitely a different year for me, as I try to figure out who I am, and my self-identity, and what has attributed to what has occurred in the past years dated back till secondary school days. I had a lot to think.

Final words
Pretty long post isn't it? Damn, it is already 2am. Probably spent more than 4h on these 2 posts alone. To sum it up, ACJC definitely has left me pleasant memories. It has lived up to its name of being a party school, as seen by how ACSians always frequent night clubs. Sad to say 2014 was the last year they allowed birthday bash, where they banned it after a guy was tied to the huge ass pillar near CPA and got egged and floured LOL. But it was all in the name of fun but some discipline teacher saw it and classified as bullying lmao. Oh I forgot to mention we have a pretty good looking principal too ;) I always enjoy singing the national anthem in J1 where my class sat near the stage HAHA.

One of the wisest words from her which etched my mind are: You are special, but not that special. It just means everyone is different and unique, and we shouldn't strive to be like others; we should just be the best versions of ourselves. Every single one of us has our own talent and speciality, and has our own role to play in society; we don't need to be the smartest or prettiest. Learn to love yourself before you love others.

P.S. If you would like to read a good blog post about HCJC life from my sec school senior which went viral, you can view it here

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My ACJC Experience (Part 1)

It is super hard to blog about this topic because of the numerous things I want to talk about and I dread how long this post will be. That is why I have been procrastinating about doing this blogpost; although I have always wanted to document my experience, just like how I did for my secondary school.
Also, I need to have the feels before I blog, and usually they come past midnight (aka late night thoughts) but that would be too close to sleeping time.

So after getting my feels from reading my friends' blogs, as well as googling about ACJC, i'm glad to say: I'm ready. I will try to categorise my content as much as possible, starting off with impressions and the environment of the school, followed by major events which occurred, then by the education and social aspect of the school, and lastly some random musings.

Impression
Before I enter the school, I already have some general impressions of the school, mainly from online forums. The common stereotypes would be: rich, snobbish, good looking people, 'ang mo pai', sporty, and last but not least, a party school - which all i wouldn't deny.

I still remember during orientation, my og mate has an ACSI dude (who eventually became the SC president), and the first thing which came to my mind was - wah must be rich guy. Then my og mates and I went to jokingly ask him how he entered the school and then rubbed our thumb and index finger at the same time, gesturing the idea of money HAHAH. But luckily he is open to jokes and just laughed it off, and in fact he got thru points.
I also remember an ACSI classmate who was in frisbee too, and I asked him how did he go to ACSI everyday. Then he told me MRT, and I was surprised LOL. I thought all the ACSI students have their rich parents send them to school in their luxurious kick-ass cars.
So what is this 'rich' stereotype all about? Basically yes indeed, majority of ACSI people come from wealthy backgrounds, but not all. As for ACJC which is a government institution unlike ACSI, there are many affluent students around too, and i can safely assume majority of students here pretty well-to-do. Like for instance, just my class alone, more than 75% of my classmates live in private housing like condo, semi d etc.
How about them being snobbish? I would say that stereotype is false. And just like any other places, there will be bound to be arrogant people, but thankfully none of them are in my social circle.

I didn't know that ACJC is known to be a JC niche in sports until my ex-classmate told me. And indeed, guys in AC are indeed fit and sporty; there are many jocks around. With such a spacious private gym known as SuperGym, where there are literally a duplicate of every machine for sufficient use, it is no wonder. AC also place a high emphasis on sports, where there are intensive PE sessions every week including swim PE lessons which I find super cool, and also it gives out the exclusive white collegiate every year to fit sportsmen and women who excelled in the NAPFA test. AC also bagged many awards from many sports ccas where many are placed in the top 4, with several ccas like softball, waterpolo, netball etc winning champion titles. I'm glad AC had made me a fitter person haha.

Undeniably, there are many ACSians who speak really good english, some also with their ang mo accents. In fact, don't let the 'Chinese' in "Anglo-Chinese Junior College" fool you: we are actually bad at chinese. I was lucky that I didn't have to take chinese in JC due to HCL, but from what I see, students often hold little regard for chinese, and chinese teachers usually have a hard time. You can also see from how the chinese language is rarely spoken in AC, well, except during chinese lesson (I guess?). I guess this is mainly because many of the students come from ang mo pai schools like MGS, ACSI, ACS barker, st marg, etc. But I'm glad I have learnt how to speak english with a proper accent too heh.

If there is one distraction that is predominant in ACJC, I would say the pretty girls HAHA. It is no doubt there are many good looking people around - guys included - as seen from day 1 where people are already scouting for chio bu. And as month pass, the chio bu database gets bigger, and more detailed of course. My guess for such a phenomenon is that there are many rich parents sending their children to institutions affiliated to ACJC, and these moms are pretty good looking (or dads), and so obviously their child will be too right? (if you are genetically lucky) So like that lor,  But really, there is not once where the void deck is void of them, and thus it is a distracting place, so i advise you don't study there ;)

When I first entered the main building of ACJC where the general office is, I was surprised about my whereabouts. What's the 4 lifts doing there, along with a huge spiral staircase which leads to the 2nd storey? Am I in an office building? Well, no. And the 2nd storey is where the school halls is. Best part? We can take the lifts to our classes (up to 7th floor) YAY. Ok tbh, ACJC really has an abundant of facilities. I get to enjoy sitting on chairs in an aircon hall which extends to LT1 everyday. Sitting at the LT and can't see the stage? Fear not. There is a screen at the side screening what's taking place at the stage (they have camera projectors of some sort). Even the people sitting at the side of the hall are not neglected as they have big-ass televisions at the front to screen the entire view of the stage as well. There are also CPA building (central of performing arts) where there is an auditorium, performing arts rooms and classrooms which can be used, void deck, sports complex, music centre (where the squash court is, strangely) etc. In all, I would say I'm blessed. 

One thing I gotta love is the ACJC uniform, and also the college shirts too! I have well over 20 college based shirts ranging from collegiates, funorama, cca dragon tees, house tees to squash and frisbee jerseys! Really great way to cultivate a sense of pride and belonging to AC yea?

ACJC, being a methodist school, has a significant portion of the population being christian. Thus, every monday, there will be a chapel lasting for 1h after assembly to worship the lord. They will start and end off with live student bands (usually from Christian Fellowship) singing christian songs (which are annoyingly catchy) and then a pastor lecturing/presenting in the middle part - which I, being a non-christian, will usually sleep through. But be prepared too to see many tired souls dozing off throughout the hall as we survive with barely 6h of sleep everyday.

Many students, even the principal, would say that a social hierarchy is strongly present in AC. Yes that's true, where you clearly know who the popular people are, which usually are talented or good looking bunch. But tbh it doesn't bother me as it doesn't really affect me, unless there is someone around trying to be popular or sucking up to those popular ones which can be annoying.
One thing I love about AC is the culture. It is usually easy to mix around in AC, and most people are really friendly. In fact, one thing that keeps me going throughout the days in school is who I would meet in the walkways - be it og mates, cca mates etc, their greetings and small talks will make up my day. I mentioned before that I was disappointed I did not feel a sense of belonging to my secondary school, but I'm grateful ACJC has given me that, along with a sense of pride. You can see pride beaming from ACSians when they cheer at the big matches for A' divisions for various sports. The sense of camaraderie is what makes AC a choice I don't regret.

Continue reading on part 2 here

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