Ok so I'm in my bunk, with a slight drizzle going on outside. It's 8 in the morning, the lights off in the bunk and my bunk mates are snug in bed. All I need is a hot mocha latte with choc chip cookies in front of me for a perfect morning :)

Ok fine I've been procrastinating about doing this blog since course unofficially ended. So here we are, day 99 out of 100 days of weapon phase (I know such a nice number right :D). It's been almost a year since I entered BMT and in many ways life has changed so much. I've made new friends, surpassed every physical barrier I thought possible, become more independent, learned about life in the real world (outside AC) and well, grown up (a little). The past 20 weeks has been such a roller coaster ride of emotions, with so many low points and some happy moments. From the initial shocker of how tough life was going to be from day one to the constant ridicule of not being good enough, it was almost enough to give up. Of course, in return this made all the brief respites like meeting up with Praisecell every Sat or going out with the course for cohesion activities all the sweeter. I guess looking back, faith did carry me through. All the times I felt so lost and burdened, I cried out and He carried me through!

Summary Exercise (the final exercise where we go out into the 'jungles' of Singapore and do insanely tiring things with almost no sleep over 5 days) was my biggest challenge. Carrying loads of no less than 50kg around, climbing stairs with 100kg worth of equipment, racing to meet timings, connecting a maze of cables in the pitch black darkness of the night/early morning have been the craziest things I've ever done in my life. Stressed, fatigued, confusion...it took it's toll on everyone and people's true colours were shown. I guess no words can really describe the insanity going on or I would just have to type for the next 4 hrs to recount everything. Sometimes you could really grow to hate someone through such a period but at the end of the day I realised I gotta learn to love them for who they are too. Everyone fails but successful is the one who learns from his mistakes. I'm glad you've committed yourself to change and moved on. Friendships were also further solidified through these trying days. You'll never understand the true worth of such friends until they help you when you don't feel like moving/can't move, went out of their way to cook you a mess tin of maggee mee, did sentry duty when all they wanted was sleep, kept you company when you manned the comms signals, stayed by your side even when the instructors were blowing their top at you. It comes down to who your true friends are and how much they bother to care. That what keeps me going and keeps me wanting to help :)

Even more so, now then ever, I miss all my sch friends loads. I guess 2 to 12 years of friendship cannot be so easily ignored and it's driving me insanely insane just wanting to meet up with the old gang again. Dec is gonna be the best month this yr cause everyone's coming back!!! :DDDD Oh man I guess one to one talks just cannot be replaced by emails and FB/MSN conversations. Sometimes I feel that just being around the other person is enough. The familiarity gives comfort to this new age of change. To all my overseas friends, GET BACK SOON!!! :DDD

So the good news is that I commission in 2 months time. 7 months ago, that was a joke and an event too far away to even be true. Even now, the reality of it has not sunk in yet. It's kind of like being knighted, you get that sense of endowment, of responsibility that you must now undertake. The prospect of being called 'Sir' is fulfilling in its own right but at the same time unnerving. I'm glad that by His grace, I've made it this far. If this is indeed an accomplishment then it is not mine but His!

So many things to think about and so many people to meet. My my time IS short :)