Welcome to a new chapter of my life.They say it's hell. They say it's a life changing transformation- from boy to man. They say that you make friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess i'll just have to find out.
And i will keep you in the know of things. This is going to be an account of my life in the army (or at least I plan to, if i dont get too tired on the weekends). But I'm sure they have some policy of not releasing sensitive information on the web so i guess i'll have to be ranting in metaphors, similes and analogies most of the time. Hopefully you'll get it. If not, then maybe it's better that you don't know. Some things are just better left unknown.
Less than 8 more days till I start serving the nation. Exciting times. And nerve-wrecking too. I think i'm totally unfit physically. I promise myself to run everyday starting from tomorrow. Hopefully a week of that will help. But i've never had to train for anything before. Not even cross-country. I always just run and be glad that it's over.
And emotionally, i just don't know how i will react to it. It's just a blank now. I'll see what happens. It's like those moments before you go onstage, when you dont feel anything right before that gush of adredalin hits as you step onstage. Hopefully, like my experiences onstage, this too will pass quickly as soon as i get the hang of things.
That's why this blog is called "Arms and the Boy". For those not in the know, it's the title of a poem by war poet Wilfred Owen. We studied a selection of his poems for A Levels. It's about the jarring combination of the violence of war and the innocence of youth. Right now i cannot imagine myself holding real rifles, firing live rounds, crawling flat on the ground as explosions erupt all around me. Can you? Maybe it's not a good idea to let kids read Owen's poems just before they serve in the army. So much for the pity of war. Well okay, the chances of actually going to war anytime soon may not seem to be possible. Yet i'm sure there have been so many incidents when we were that close to conflict- they just weren't made public.
But still, life as a soldier will be vastly different. For one, I will have to get use to calling people Sir. Nothing wrong with that, you may say, but I have never called anyone Sir, not even teachers, because i feel that it adds distance and alienation between two persons. I prefer addressing people by the unique names their parents have given them. That's more initmate, I feel. But I dont think the army sees it the same way and i guess i will just have to grit my teeth and submit myself to the system- like everyone else.
It's what you make of it, someone tells me. And i agree. I'll take it when it comes and suck it up like a slurpee (without the brainfreeze). But it's not that bad, if you think about it. It's everything i've ever wanted: A chiselled physique and a sunkissed tan with fashionably short hair. And you get paid! Forget the yelling and the punishment and the long runs. It's all good.
God help me.
I'm really sorry for the boring template but it's just that for some screwed up reason i cannot use templates from Blogskins. That sucks. But i'll see how it goes. Tell me if you see a nice template hanging around or if you know how to get round this problem. I think it's due to bad scripting i guess. But i'm illiterate in that area. So help!
Long first post. Thanks for reading till the end! (:
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