Our Ah Boy To Man

I haven’t talked much about my baby brother on this blog too much in recent years. Mostly cos I didn’t think he would appreciate it!

I will always think of my brother as my first baby because he is a good 14 years younger than me, but in reality, he is definitely a baby no longer. Towards the end of last year, he got his NS call-up, and in Dec, he officially enlisted.

Noey and I went along to see him off. It was a milestone in my brother’s life and I didn’t want to miss it.

And ok, I’ve also never had the chance to step on Pulau Tekong, so I was curious! I also wanted to give Noey a tiny taste of what he was in for when he was of age. (Oh, and I also wanted to take pictures, much to my brother’s embarrassment. Haha.)

I hadn’t watched Ah Boys to Men at that point, but when I did subsequently, I was surprised that the movie did reflect the programme for the day.

We took the bus from Pasir Ris bus interchange to the ferry terminal, then the ferry across to the island, and then a bus from there again to the SAF training school. At the training school, we were given a tour of the premises while my brother went to get the paperwork for his enlistment done. We were shown the bunks (where they have wi-fi!) and their rest/recreation rooms and also given a talk on what goes into their full packs. One poor chap was also all dressed up as a live model for you to take pics with. My Dad and I speculated that he was probably being punished to have gotten this “lucky” role!

We were then shuffled into an auditorium for a talk by the Commanding Officer where they dispensed important information like when the first phone call home would be and the first book out. Then we were moved into the mess hall to be served a typical recruit’s meal, and there bid farewell to our boy.

I think all of us were, naturally, worried about my brother when we left him. As the pampered baby of the family, was he going to be able to cope? For someone who had to be dragged out of bed for lunch almost daily, was he going to be able to wake up at 5.30am? The kids and I prayed very hard for him every night since that day. That he would find good, reliable friends, that he would find favour with his superiors, and that he would be kept safe from danger.

So maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised to find that my brother took to NS rather well. God was indeed gracious. He maintained a good attitude and got along well with his section mates. He became more considerate and responsible. I felt like he really grew up and I couldn’t have been more proud of him for that.

This weekend was his Passing-out Parade. Almost the whole family — minus me and Noey cos we had Noey’s music class to attend — turned up at the floating platform at the ungodly hour (for a Sat!) of 7.30am to watch our Ah Boy take his first steps out as a man. 

He’s now enjoying his well-deserved break and will soon find out where he’s been posted to for the rest of his NS career. We don’t know where that would be but we know that the Lord will be watching over him all the same. We certainly would still be praying!