Bedazzled

If I compare my upcoming weeks with the time I had to work, I would be sad to say that the upcoming weeks are gonna be lots and lots of pain.

On the 3rd of June, we will be involved in the Police National Parade (PDP) which means I will be missing out on church that Sunday and we will be experiencing a lot of turbulence in the PA from Monday till the end of the parade.

Basically, we will have to perform our Police Defensive Tactics (dojo) in front of a live audience of 7,000. That is the number our OC informed us on Friday. On top of which, he warned us that there would be a good number of foreign commissioners or something among the stands. Sounds fun.

But quite frankly, I'm looking forward to it. Not the training bit but the performance. I would love to be among the several hundred of us on the parade square performing. The only fear in mind is the embarrassment of moving wrongly during the course of the performance. I'm sure if that happens, it wouldn't be too hard to spot the mistake =S I just hope I will be confident and alert enough to prevent that from happening.

Anyway, when I said 'turbulence' above, it meant we will be having really tiring, really troublesome timetables from Monday till the end of this parade. Our intensive dojo training is scheduled every night from 7pm to 9:30pm, which means we will be 'on duty' from 6am till 9:30pm each night. Not to mention how we have to sleep by 10:30pm. So yeah, not too much fun if you ask me.

Also this week, we will have another 2 shooting frames where we will have another chance to rectify our scores.
For the shooting system, we are given 6 frames. All of which are live rounds. Your results are based on your results after the 6 rounds of 300 bullets (if I'm not wrong), totaling up to a score of 600 points, have been shot. The highest rank you could get is marksman, followed by 1st class then 2nd class. After which, any result below 2nd class will be considered as a failure. If you fail, you will be allowed a re-take. Then if you still fail to pass, you will have to re-course the entire course again to retrieve a minimum rank of 2nd class.

So far, I've only managed 70 points which means I am still a long way from getting marksman. If God is willing, I hope to get marksman to boost my chances of getting what is in-stored for me.

At this point in time, I am torn between two 'postings'. Despite how I mentioned in one of my previous posts about getting into the SOC, I learnt on Thursday that it is possible for a NS man to get the Inspector rank. In the police force, the Inspector ranks pretty high up there. Not as high as one of the senior officers, but high enough to be considered 'respected'.
Besides how I would love to have that high a rank, I am also interested in the salary behind it. Reason being is that when I go back to Australia, there will be many things I will need to buy and so with a nice attractive salary in the balance, I am really torn apart.

It's either SOC or Inspector.
SOC training is extremely difficult. That's how difficult I have pictured it to be. I have prepared myself mentally to expect one of the worse scenarios possible. One of which would be hearing the officers shouting outside to report now as I am in the toilet doing my business. Another one would be officers coming into our bunks in the middle of the night for an inspection or worse still, a PT session. My brother told me that he had to do that in OCS. They called them to fall in late at night to have them do a PT session followed by them getting fully dressed for combat. And if OCS is like that, I can't imagine SOC.
Another down side to this would be the ranking I could get. I believe the highest rank that NS men can get during the 2 years there is only Sargent. Before coming to Singapore, I had set my mind to get to the highest possible that I can achieve. If I do go down this path, I would have to set aside that goal and do what I can with the opportunities before me.

Having said all the negative points about SOC, let me just elaborate on the several positive points about SOC.
I know that when I come out of there, I will not only be strong physically but I will be strong mentally as well. That is something not many people can withstand and if I do manage to strengthen my mental endurance, I believe I would have an upper hand in many situations in life. But is going through all that training really worth it? That is the question.

Another reason that really got me interested was the uniform of the SOC officers. It is so freakin' cool! Besides the standard SOC body uniform which looks like one of those mechanics except coloured in dark purplish-black and boots which weigh up to 1kg each, it was the maroon beret that got me hooked. Apparently in wikipedia, it labelled the maroon beret in Singapore as 'Commandos', which suddenly got me really thinking. If the SOC's berets are maroon, and the Commando's berets are maroon ... that it would mean that SOC would be something like the Commando course!
lol.
One other reason why I want to join the SOC are the skills that they offer the trainees. They will teach us a whole bunch of things that many people will never get to learn and I don't know ... an offer like that, it's a bit hard to refuse. I won't go into too much detail about what they offer because I really just can't be bothered XP But that is something I am really considering about this.


As for Inspector, I'm interested in the course because of two main reasons - the salary and the rank. Another sub-point would be how it might be an office job. I would have thought that after excelling so much in all the categories, an Inspector would be outdoors doing something. Then again, it isn't the case. If that does happen to me, I might consider keeping fit at the side like going to the pool every now and then like I do now. I tend to swim every Saturday morning now just to keep fit.

Anyway, back to what I was saying, Inspector. The salary that they provide is the figure that I have been eying on since my bro told me his pay as an army officer. Money is a very important thing in this world and as a young person who is on the verge of starting a life, money is very crucial. Even as a christian, I still think the need for money to begin some sort of a life is very important. I need a car, I need to help my parents unburden the financial load, I need to start supporting myself in most areas, I need some pocket money for transporting necessities, and believe it or not, I need to save for a future family. And the list goes on.
Also, after working for 2 months, I realise how important holidays are. haha, yes yes. A mere two months is really nothing but I finally understand why people save up for holidays and if I start working too, I think I would love to go on a holiday and with this extra money coming in, it would definitely make life a whole lot easier.

As for the rank, I mentioned above that I wanted to reach as high as I could during my time here and I believe if I reach Inspector, that would mean a whole lot to my determination to achieve. I really dislike making goals or promises and not fulfilling it. Not fulfilling this would be just as bad because I had already set my mind on it. Actually, I wanted to join the army to become an officer because that was what my dad and brother did during their NS time. But after discovering I wouldn't be able to, I decided to just do my best and see how far I can get. So this was how I decided to 'achieve', and when I said achieve, I meant to achieve high. Retrieving the Inspector rank would really mean a lot to me.


However, despite my indecisiveness, it all comes down to one thing, and one thing alone - what God wants. There was a reason why I'm a Singaporean and there's a reason why I'm in the Police Academy at this point in time. So it all depends on what God wants for me. If He wants me to join SOC, so be it. If He allows me to get the Inspector rank, so be it. I really don't care. I just care about what God wants me to do there. Now that's gonna be interesting.

What might be even more interesting would be if one of the officers were to ask me straight to my face and say, "Son, you have been chosen. You now have two choices. Where would you like to go? SOC? or Inspector?"
If that happened, I would probably break down and cry.