|
Saturday, July 26, 2008/ 9:29 PM 4 years in sjab After POP!  Photos taken 1 month ago (: hci*St.J!  Platoon4'08!    Platoon2'08!   this gonna be a long post, beware xD St John Ambulance Brigade 4 years back, i din even know that such a term existed. after all the sec 1 orientation, i inaccidentally got into sjab. it was pretty much a shock to me, when i was expecting to get through to 2nd round of orientation. i can proudly tell your that throughout this 4 years, i did not even have the thoughts of quitting sjab at all, even when i took up track as my 2nd CCA in sec 3, sjab is always my priority. now the 4 years seemed to be a distant memory. Platoon1'05 - I din know what to expect in a uniformed group at all. i guess training helped a little when a lot of ppls is threatening to quit, back then our poor PC, yingcheng really had a hard time. you can say that he is a brilliant guy as a PC or even as a person, trying all ways to make sjab interesting to us, even though this should not be the way. never ever pump us, throughout the 6 mths maybe only 20 in total. humph, put it simply training was fun with all the soccer that we get to play, and not long after, the thoughts of quitting did not surfaced anymore. since im new here, chinteck is the only person i knew. just a few days later, clement joined due to my influence xD, and i managed to stay through with them around. zihao quit track to join, before weisheng quit canoeing to join, and now we boost a total of 5 rulangnites in our squad. i can remember vividly alvin sng is the icon/mascot of our squad. who can forget his classic self-introduction? "i love to crack battery." throughout the 6 mths, it was pretty interesting and fun, maybe their priority is just building up our passion for sjab. i knew of my squadmates more, and they are really a fun bunch of ppls. Platoon 2'06 - after yingcheng's batch passed out, the stuffs that followed is beyond our imagination. liye came into power and become our PC. to think that we voted for him to become our PC, that must be the worst decision that we have ever made. training becomes sadist, the amount of pumpings that we did every training is countless. even when there is no reason to pump us, it is still not possible to stop him from pumping us. our first aid knowledge is gone case. he himself is not even interested in first aid, why bother in teaching us first aid. its like he asked "why do you have a headache sometimes?" "its because the brain hit the skull." classic. "First-aid is common sense." and there he goes, training is about footdrills, pumpings, PT, and basketball to him. u guess it. ppls are ponning training becos of this. thoughts of quitting surfaced again. but hes no yingcheng, he will never change his training methods. in the end, we still persevere through. maybe its time that we should thanks him. If not of all these, our squad spirit will not be as strong as now. we pulled it though together, coming to training faithfully, even though we know what we will expect. after every training, we all feel a sense of satisfaction. glad that we managed to preserve the training on each day. till now, every now and then, his name was always mentioned. maybe its due to the legacy that he left behind. the 'knock it down' handsign, milo tin drill, wheelbarrow, ironman, daytona, and many more, all the sadist activities that he invented on his own, proved to be the talking point of all of us. but still, we are glad, that we went through all these. gossiping behind NCOs is common, though on the surface we may be complaining about the stuffs he did, i guess it is inevitable, that the fact that we are going through this. Platoon 3'07 - the time has come, where liye's batch stepped down. we are all hyper, perhaps to the fact that in just 1 year time, NCO-ship is ours. jonathan took over as our PC. our squad size instantly become smaller, when 10 of us went for comp team training. things took a drastic change immediately, when we emphasised on the need of first aid. training turned for the better, with more first aid sessions. their training regime really taught us a lot of things, the way they improve communication within cadets and NCOs, forum, talk cock session, all these really help. nonetheless, attendance is better now. but things took a whole big change after basic NCO course. then the sec 2s, which is us, went for NCOC at tanglin sec. perhaps due to the big transition, the enthuness for sjab is cultivated. it is only until then, that i have a different perspective of sjab. the way how different corps functioned, on how they do stuffs, it was really an eye-opener for me. upon completion of NCOC, all of us become more enthusiastic towards training. volunteering for everything, shouting like there is no tomorrow. not long after the chance to join track came, i grabbed it with both hands. but as i said, the thoughts of leaving sjab issint in my thoughts at all. rameshon ask me to quit sjab to focus on track. his idea was rejected by me instantly without any second thoughts, becos i knew that will never happened. the 1 year that i spend in track is an eye-opener for me also. joining various competitions representing hwachong. though i din make it to nationals, it is still satisfying. i even skipped the last part of training everytime to return to sjab early for training. now at this time, the gap between the comp teams, and non-comp teams is astonishing. but after all we are a squad, we treat each other equally, there should not be any clear distinction of any members, cos ultimately everyone of us is still a member of our squad. and i guessed we solved it peacefully. nth can break our squad morale now. i especially enjoyed the june camp when we are sec 3. it is the last camp for which we are as cadets. we are simply too high. war game is the best stuff that can ever happened. the inspirational talk by our waikian, mao zhu xi, tactic talk by zhenghang, shennan. war cheer made by us. thats when we really see all of us as one. one platoon, one squad, one strong, unbreakable spirit. though we may not as won, it is the process, the progress that we went through that is worth it. soon, the chance of participating in hillary challenge came. another alternative way of representing hcisjab other than being in comp team. went with shennan. it is st john whom give me this opportunity, and i will be grateful for that, such chances dun come by often. though we might not have won, i dun regret joining. not long after, in nats comp, we got 1st for AA and 2nd for AC. im so proud of them when it was announced. after all the hard work they put in, the victory is theirs. Platoon 4'08 - you could well said we have waited for this time to come for so long. the chance of being a NCO. i always wanted a training post, and u can guess how relieved/glad i am, when i was announced to receive my post of deputy platoon commander 2. when we took over, working with weisheng was a joy. everything was a mess not long after, when ppls from platoon 2 are demanding/threatening to quit. we changed our training scheme totally. just like what we have in sec 1. no matter what, the passion for sjab still counts. that foundation is needed before anything can proceed. training becomes carefree, setting ground rules, going through basic footdrills/first aids. i guessed it helped a lot. trainings only become stricter this year, it was not after we lost both AA and AC in zone competition, that we realised the need to prepare them for it in the next coming year. frequent first aid test and practical is implemented, comp team drills are taught, in an attempt to get them familarise with it. it worked perfectly, the amount of efforts that they put in is very obvious. all's not lost yet. i believed combined with the training that they are going to get from sec 3s, they will make an impact in zone comp nxt year. now the platoon 2 that i see now has, strong squad spirit, willingless to help out one another, though their discipline has to be improved. though when we are NCOs, the chances of us platoon 4 staying together is minimal, the past that we shared will always be remembered. ever wondered on why i joined NCOC as trainer even as a lone representative from our corp? it served as a chance to give back to sjab, for what sjab has given to me this 4 years. contributing my service back to sjab is a joy, for i will never forget what how sjab has changed my life this 4 years. even at the end of the day, its not just contributing to sjab, i received more than what i gave, friendships, the way different corps discipline their cadets, the way they demand stuffs from the trainees, the way on how to mentally prepared the trainees. the insights that i gained, and most importantly, how to be platoon commander. i guessed it helped ultimately when i hold a dpc post in sjab. it changed my way of thinking. i have done all i could that is within my capabilities for now. i do hope that sjab will cont to do well in the future. as said my journey ended here. i will revisit in the near future, more importantly during zone comp nxt year, jiayou sec 2s! no matter who is in comp team, do give your encouragement to one another, squad spirit is very important. thanks platoon 4 for these 4 years. 28 of us weisheng, jianler, daren, zihao, shennan, zhenghang, jeremy, raymond, waikian, edmund, christopher, tzeliang, yongquan, glen, chinteck, clement, zhongzheng, jonathan, dingjie, weijie, bowie, sweekiat, derek, yufan, kuanyue, shawn, xianbing, aaron thanks platoon 2 for being such an enjoyable squad to work with. 16 of them benjamin, chengcan, yiren, shengyang, zhengxuan, bernard, darrel, weichin, mingxun, andrew, chengen, lukyean, timothy, kennethlim, kennethloh, saochuan thanks all the ex-NCOs that followed us through our journey in sjab. thanks the zone 7 sjab ppls for making my journey so complete. that's all i have to say. |
|
