National Service

It was someday in August last year that I knew that I'd been selected for the National Service Training Programme (NS) and my very first thought was...ohh my god!!!...why on earth out ouf nearly 400000 people born on 1987, I was among the 85000 picked for it...The message I received from the SMS where I checked was something like this..."Tahniah, anda telah terpilih untuk mengikuti Program Latihan Khidmat Negara Siri 2/2005". There's no doubt that during that day, I can't stopped thinking about it... But as the days goes by, I knew that since I've been selected, there's no way to avoid it cause you still got to attend it no matter what...even after you've been fined or jailed!!!...unless you have some really good reason.

And few weeks later, I got the letter from the NS department and I was posted to Gopeng. It's not that I have never heard of the town before, just that I wasn't sure where is it. After looking from a map, then I know it's somewhere near Ipoh. I was relieved that I got the first batch...and the training starts at 13 December 2004.

On that day, my family send me to the Kamunting Bus Terminal. There were hundreds of people there as the family members of most of the trainees bid farewell to their sons and daugthers...and since they'll be leaving for 3 months, it wasn't surprising to see tears rolling down their cheeks among some of them. The bus to my camp boarded much later than it was scheduled because they were waiting for some who haven't arrived. But at around 11am, we headed toward our camp - Kem Kepimpinan Gemilang in Gopeng.

When we reached there, all of us was amazed at the facilities there...and my first impression was towards the three-storey tower for the absailing and flying fox activities. My thoughts were how am I going to do these activities...And after checking in, I headed to the dorm I was placed. And I still remembered the first person I knew was Farhan or Pa'an as we called him...well, his bed is just by my side!