On this day exactly nine years ago, I got drafted into NS. The day I took the fastboat from Changi Jetty, I knew life would change, but has it really? Am I richer? Am I better off? Have I made a difference? It probably good to reflect now and do something before it becomes a decade next year.

Let’s look at life nine years ago. I was fresh out of poly, had a gf, lived with my parents, had this outlook of an endless future for myself. Today, I am stuck in a windowless office, single, balding, very stale out of poly, teaching a bunch of 18 year olds engineering (when I am not one) and looking forward to retirement by 30 years of age.

Have I really lived that much in nine years? Am I still sleeping? Unchanged? Unimportant? I had some time to think about the years as I participated in an activity I learnt in army. Attaching out & driving around aimlessly, pumping petrol and slowly cruising along to a western australian sunset. There is one more year till that decade, and it darn well better go out with a bang as I enter the next phase……….