NDP rehearsals

As part of my National Service, I am tasked to participate with the National Day Parade, thus being included into all rehearsal practices. My total stage time is around five minutes during the celebration, but since I'm being held back by the law and am thus expendable, I stay at the rehearsal site for around fourteen hours, with a total of around five hours worth of practice time. This may seem lax, but the area is dirty with no proper seating areas, hot with it being around 35 degrees celsius in the shade with no proper cooling system and crowded, thus making it hard for movement around the place, especially when it comes to access to water at certain times. Lastly the rehearsals require a good amount of rest and stamina, which is hard to find considering the early time we must reach the point and the late time that we are allowed to go home (if we are able to find a bus in time). As such, it has been hard to post, as the week before I had to book in early in addition to burning my weekend. 

But the NDP rehearsals have been fulfilling, as I got to see many other sectors rehearse their own section of the performance, such as the marching contingent of the army and parachuters as they dominated the skies. I saw how much preparation went into the event itself, from the volunteers who helped with the provision and distribution of drinks to the engineers who set up the stage such that some areas could rise and fall and change colour and so on. The only thing I haven't seen so far is the fireworks, and I have not seen that in a long time. 

Additionally I got to see many old friends, some old school mates and some old BMT mates, both of which I have not seen since my enlistment in 2016. I got to catch up with the former for quite some time, not noticing that at least an hour and a half passed by during the conversation. We got to talk about my pre-enlistment days, and I found it quite surprising how much I changed over the course of my National Service list thus far, and I'm curious as to how I will change in the few more months to come before I ORD. Additionally he asked me to follow him back to school to talk about my National Service experience to placate those anxious students about enlistment that they face upon their graduation. I realise that it may be perhaps time to dig up old relationships, as much as I feel uncomfortable doing so most of the time. 

Cheers,

Matthew Tan