Life.Freedom

How would you feel if freedom is taken away from you in an instant?

Lost. Probably.

I accompanied one of the soldiers to court today for his court hearing, he had his SOC in the morning and prior to leaving the camp I could sense his uneasiness. The platoon mates wished him luck, he smile and told them that he will be back and ready for AIT phase to start.

He doesn’t know how to communicate with his parents. His dad, mum and sis could do nothing but to sit down on the benches while he stood alone on the other side. I talked to him, he talked to me about him messaging his girlfriend right now and that he feel like giving her call but she’s having a lesson.

He asked me if I could go take the train with him later since I’m staying in the east as well and he told me he wanna have mac after the hearing is over.

I said ok.

The officer came to call his name and he stood in front of the judge. He didn’t turn to look at his parent’s worried eyes as his charges were read to him. I wonder what was going through his mind at that moment.

I knew it felt like every second must have been like hours, standing before so many pairs of eyes and especially before your loved ones. The judge gave his verdict. He was to be sent to a remand center with immediate effect and the next time he could be contacted or visited will be 3 weeks later.

He surrendered his phone and ID card to the police officer and walked to the detention room. Lost. Was all that was written all over his face. I caught a glimpse of the room. It is a small, bright white room with nothing but the walls.

The mom wept. She wanted to talk to the son but she was afraid he didn’t want to listen to her. The dad comforted her and she told me to relay a message to the son that he must be good during his detention and treat it as another confinement in the army.

I gave my ID to the officer and through the glass panel; I sensed his remorse and worries. I relayed his mum’s message and he cried.

He told me he has a lot of things to tell his parents and he still has an incomplete message type to his girlfriend when his phone was taken away and now he will not be able to talk to them for almost a month.

i pitied him.

I guess I know that feeling. Almost the same thing happened to me 6 years ago. I wish he would learn from his lesson. And just like me then, he’s still very young.

Sometimes we just have to look back and do some reflection about life. I was lucky I didn’t leave a black mark in my life because I was given a second chance unlike him, I left my friends and life went on. Most of the time it’s the waiting process that is torturous.
I always kept this little red card that my form teacher gave me which is laminated nicely about she being proud of me for doing well for my ‘O’s, got a place in JC and turn over a new leaf.

I did exactly the same for the recruits on their POP day, laminated notes of encouragements and hopefully they do learn something and move on in life.

everyone makes mistakes and sadly, in army i learnt that not everyone knows the meaning of learning from mistakes.

i wish that you would not be like them,
Good luck Chan.

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