my reply is NOT TO PUT YOU DOWN. it is to WAKE YOU UP.
mrbakchormee wrote:...I've always felt I would enjoy life more overseas (which is why I came to SGexpats originally to browse, wanted to meet foreign friends),
and I wouldn't miss Singapore per se.
I know that even 35 years down the line, I decide "oh what a bright day it is! Let me fly to Country A!" and it so happens to have a stop-over in Singapore I would be deep-fried, but i'm ready to sit on this for awhile and think about it at the least.
I guess right now, SMS, my main concern is that I have my O levels this year, and a few interviews with representatives from colleges overseas in the coming weeks, and like I read before "the sticky issue is when the kids are 18 and they have so many decisions to make".
I know many people just suck it up and serve their NS because of this and that but ultimately, I wouldn't want to call Singapore my homeland (no offense!), and I know many of the consequences now like,
...at the end of the day it's my hand that's holding the passport at that checkpoint, and to go or not is my choice to make and live with..
I will definitely reflect on this further and make an even more informative choice, thanks.
In light of this, I would like to enquire how National Service is like?
I would not be so against it if I could just go in and be a medic, and I hear your education plays a big part in your vocation.
So, if I have a good educational history as a nurse, how would it play out?
I hear of friends of friends who are currently serving and they talk about "Tekong" and sleepless nights and "being treated like shit", yet I see camps all over the country!
But all any of them talk about is being in "Tekong"!
I guess it just concerns me that my time would be spent doing drills and being yelled at to clean and assemble my rifle rather than treating wounds, riding in the back of an ambulance around Singapore as part of an emergency response unit.
Not a day goes by now that I don't wonder about my N.S future, at such a juncture with my dreams and aspirations.
I know I share a very common pickle and it gets this way for almost everybody but unlike some (I emphasize 'some') of the "almost everybody", I DO know where I want to go, what I want to work as and who I want to become, and in all my planning Singapore just doesn't pop up on the list at all..there's certainly a shortage in nurses worldwide, and only very special reasons would involve Singapore but nothing would be to be set in stone, and it upsets me that even then, I still have such obligations to the country!..
you're 16. you don't know j@ckshit and you don't know what you want. you should spend some time talking to nurses first, to know what life as a nurse is like.
if you want to work in australia, you need to join some australian forums and ask about life as a chinese nurse in australia.
you may think you know WHAT you want, but on a scale of things and to quote adam sandler in a non-comedy movie REIGN OVER ME: you're just a baby.
however mature you may think you are, you still have a lot of growing up to do.
you don't want to leave, and then regret, and then have to face the horrible consequence of your actions.
i don't know what sort of friends you have in the military, but life is not all sh!t and tekong. life is as productive as you make it to be. i know people who raise their babies or complete academic courses during their NS (well, it was 2.5 years during my time).
people get "treated like shit" in the military because... it's the military. they just feel like it's "shit" because most of today's young adults are too soft. they need to harden up.
i went to brunei and taiwan and thailand during my NS life. i sure didn't only talk about tekong although i went there for training many times. neither did my friends. but during BMT, that was all we knew so that was all we spoke about.
life as a military medic is not fun because it is not very "clinical." life as a nurse (especially in singapore hospitals) is also not fun. the path for you becoming a "nurse clinician" is extremely difficult. it is not simply completing a polytechnic diploma or university degree.
but i know it is not difficult to be posted out as a medic, especially if you have a nursing diploma under your belt. but don't expect emergency response unit or saving people like in COMBAT HOSPITAL on tv.
if you know what you want, and you're mature enough to think through all the consequence, you'll know that the path to what you want is not going to be easy. don't let avoiding a 2-year long NS make it even tougher...
mrbakchormee wrote:the lynx wrote:Correct me if I am wrong but not all enlisted men go to SAF right? Some go to Police Force while some other go to Civil Defence Force. And which unit you go to also depends on few factors.
For example, I know a dude who is in SAF in medic unit. If this is what you're looking for and they have a system in place to identify worthy people to be in certain units suitable to their vocation, then I guess you shouldn't worry about it right?
Yeah I had heard about that but there hasn't been much re-assurance on that
I'm not sure if that's true or not that I WILL be put to good use in such a vocation.
ethnicity and qualifications have a lot to do with becoming a (junior) police officer or SCDF paramedic/firefighter.
mr bak, there is NOTHING guaranteed in life. there are no such thing as "re-assurance" in obtaining life's goals.
if you know what you want, then make sure you first complete your O's and get into the nursing diploma course.
then when you're in, make sure you successfully complete your polytechnic diploma.
when you've done so, you will be in a better position to try to get a position as a military medic or paramedic for NS.
when you've finished NS, you'd have more discipline to continue with what you want to do.
i wish you all the best - the world does need more good nurses and i hope you'll become one.
like in Loose an eye or a leg .. or a hand .. 
