a question for singapore’s national servicemen?
i’ll be entering national service very soon. i most probally wind up in infantry unit or engineers as what many have told me.
while i have no worries about going through a tough life or getting hollered in the face all the time, i do have this little concern.
it’s the amount of free time you get in the ‘army days’. how often do you guys get to sit down to read a book, write a novel, or draw some pictures while your bunker mates play poker, talk crap and gossip and do blanket parties? and how often do you get to leave the camp and go home? for how long?
just in case if anyone is wondering, i’d want to make the most of this free time to practice my drawing skills and do a portfolio so i may enter an art course in polytechnic or some private collage.
Your free time is dependant on:-
(i) Which stage of National Service you are in;
(ii) Your vocation;
(ii) What course/unit you are doing at each point in time; and
(iii) The schedule of your course/unit.
There will always be some free time – though it’s not always that you will be able to book out and have a nights out, or if you are able to stay out. From time to time, your duties may involve your weekends as well.
Depend on your physical fitness and demands of your training program, you may or may not have the energy to find time or energy to do a course outside.
But if you are doing such things in your free time, you will surely be able to find time to do so – assuming you prefer to engage in developing your drawing skills rather than doing other personal stuff during this time.
Your free time will depends on your vocation. (Combat, School instructor, clerical). If you are in combat/ops unit, chances is you won’t have that much time. In the beginning stage, there will be lots of courses, etc. Its only towards the end of your NS that you have more time. But most of your tenure, you will probalby have 2~3 hrs a nite of free time.
O course, if you want more free time, then make yourself fit now. The fitter you are, the less extra PT you need to do, so more free time.