Posted on 23-May-2014
Boot Camp, to me, was one of those camps I would not want to attend, but I ended up going anyway. I kept having negative thoughts, for example, facing fierce officers and NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers), needing to do footdrills all the time under the hot sun, and having very little time to sleep. I was petrified.
On the 22nd of March began the 3-days and 2-nights camp. When I first stepped into Sri Sempurna International School, the venue of our Boot Camp, I was afraid to speak because I was worried that I might say something wrong unintentionally and get skewered by the officers, possibly result in putting a bad image upon myself. After almost an hour, I gathered my courage and started being more open and outgoing, because someone knowledgeable once said to me, “do not constrain yourself, but open up your eyes and try seeing things in a more positive manner.” When I did that, I tried experiencing Boot Camp in a more positive way. Then that was when I started to enjoy myself.
I started to have friends, mostly Year 7s (age of 13), and mostly boys. We had a lot of fun together, especially hiking Ketumbar Hill. We would poke fun at each other and laugh together. The Boys had to sleep in the activity and music room, while the Girls slept in the boardroom. During the 4 meal times, we sat together in the canteen and had fellowship. On one of the nights, we had a long session of talent time, where everyone participated by acting a short skit based on themes given by the NCOs. After that, Sergeant Lydia told us a few horror stories to frighten us in the night.. and it worked because after that, I had to ask my friends to stay close to me.
We also had a fire drill, which was called off in the middle of the night at 2am. I don’t think it went well because there was a bunch of us couldn’t wake up and get prepared in time. So we were given 150 push-ups as punishment. It was tough, but I have learnt the importance of punctuality.
On our last day, it was finally came the time for receiving our reward through all the teamwork and talent time presentations we have done. The prize giving ceremony was quite exciting. On another matter, we were given a chance to reduce our accumulated amount of push-ups if we were able to recount the whole camp in words within 5 minutes. It was a form of immunity, resulting in us not requiring to do anymore push-ups. I was adjudged the Best Camper, which for me was an experience of joy of achieving something in BB. I thank God for that!
I went home remembering five important rules from Boot Camp: