RENEWAL

UGPMET
So I have spent the past 3 days in my UGPMET residential programme and I felt it has been quite beneficial on the whole. As I started this blog with the intention to reflect on what I hoped to do and achieve, I guess this programme came at an appropriate time as it allowed me to reflect on my values and my purposes as I begin to move on in my new phase of life -- university life.

What I have distilled from the course is as follow:

My 3 key values are GROWTH, INFLUENCING OTHERS and MEANINGFUL WORK.

Which seems quite apt really as I evaluate how I have led my life in the past year and a half. Spending my time in OCS growing as a person, so that I may contribute to in my way to society (and in this context it would be throught the SAF)

My envisioned life purpose is (to excel in all that I do and to make a difference) or as revised: to learn from the past, live in the present and work for the future!

And this is aligned quite closely to my values! However, I guess I need to work on the more specific goals and objectives I hope to pursue in order to meet my purpose in life.

But i guess other than what I have determined to be my VALUES and PURPOSE during this 3 day course, one of the most important lessons I have learnt is the importance to constantly keep your VALUES and PURPOSES in mind so that when I decide to take a certain course of action, these will be of my foremost consideration.

Of course, there exists the possibility that values and purpose could evolve over time as I gain more life experiences. Hence, I have resolved to reflect upon them on a regular basis, though I have not yet determined how often that should be (Probably one or twice a year?). We will see how that goes, though it is an interesting coincidence that I am typing this reflection at the end of June so if I base it on my twice yearly self-evaluation schedule, that would make it a 'year-end' or 'new-year' resolution!


SAF DAY PARADE
Kudos to those squadron people I happened to spot marching in the contingent! Its hard work. (as well as the many fellow officers from my commissioning batch, its so good to see them again). It was really quite interesting to watch the parade from the perspective of a spectator -- one who went through a similar experience -- its as if I now watch them with new lens as I appreciate the significance of the commands and the hard work behind the execution of good drills. Familiar tunes were played, familiar pledges made, familiar anthems sung -- with gusto no less -- as we young impressionable officers felt that renewed conviction to our cause (after going through this residential phase). You may dismiss this as being 'garang', or overly-enthusiastic/'siao-on', but hey, all I can say is that it was a pretty good feeling.