Honestly, I pity those who don't serve NS.

Now hold on a second. I'm not going to go all patriotic and all-out Captain Singapura for this. Because NS is, while something to be occasionally proud of, not necessarily something that'll cause a gung-ho attitude. Well, not all the time, at least.

I see my girl friends around me all studying in university, and that made me thankful for these 2 years of... I'd use the word "idle". Literally, for 2015 and 2016, I have zero mugging to do. Okay, there's the seldom need to study my medical skills so that I can stay a decently-competent medic, and there's the occasional studying for BTT and FTT driving (which are, by the way, the most idiotproof tests I've ever sat for in my life). But that's about it.

The first thing I look forward to when going home is to do nothing. You don't get that sort of luxury when you're schooling! You basically have nothing to do, and you spend your time sitting in front of the computer and clicking on webpages, hoping to learn something new but ending up going over to YouTube to watch that same Ryan Higa video you watched earlier that morning.

We should all probably be thankful. Yes, there are some downsides too, like being rusty about all of your knowledge. I must confess that I have had zero contact with my JC books ever since the last day of A levels. Okay wait, no; the last contact was a week later, when I threw everything away after flipping them through for the final time.

Into the incinerator y'all go.

As a result, I am now also extremely rusty. I've had offers to tuition other people, or to go back to TJ and help after my NS. And let's just say, I won't take "yes" for an answer any time soon... Because, realistically, I have forgotten pretty much everything I've learnt in JC. JC content is useless, and everyone torture themselves to get that ideal 'A' grade so that they can get into university. JC is probably only useful in the way that it teaches us how to handle stress and workload; the contents themselves, unless you're really into what you study, are pretty much disposables after you finish your exams.

Anyway, I am extremely thankful to NS, because while it has delayed my studies, it has also brought 12 years of proper education to a temporary halt, and allowed a lot of us to take a breather. It's during NS that we really develop as a person, and I swear that I've learnt the most in 2015, not from NS but from the time it has given me to reflect on my relationships with the people around me and to work on becoming (hopefully but not really) a better person.

So here's one to you, National Service.

Song of the day:
Charlie Puth - One Call Away
(What do you call a Mexican call centre? Juan Call Away. Aha. Good joke eh? I came up with it.)
(As much as the lyrics aren't the most inventive and are rather boring, the tune is aite.)