It is said that National Service turns boys into men. From this sweeping statement one would naturally assume that the experience and lessons one learns from the army is the driving force behind this radical change in one's personality. While I did personally feel a change in my psyche; in the way i think and process information and the world around me, I will not hasten to jump to any unfounded conclusions as to attribute this change solely to my 2-year Army stint. Alas, the experience I recieved during NS, albeit valuable, had as much effect on my general psyche as would a lesson on NE. Then again, I would not have given up on any one piece of experience I have had. It is, in the least, a memory to treasure and store along life's journey. That, however, isn't the point of this post, the point that I wish to make known is that what I believe to be the driving force behind this change in my personality could quite possibly be attributed to the development of rational thinking and the harsh decisions that were forcefully placed on my path to consider.

As adolescents in our early stage of life, we lack rational thinking. That's why kids are that much easier to trick, that much easier to convince, and that much easier to satisfy. In a sense, it is what innocence is made of. I guess it is partly why in the court of law, kids are sentenced to juvenile detention instead of a jail term. Kids lack rational thinking and thus, are easily suayed by peer pressure or a negative adult influence, into doing things that does not necessarily born form their own intentions. Thus far, it is my belief that we reach that maturity, when the development of the part of our brain that governs rational thinking comes into its peak, at around the time we are serving NS. The evidence of that is subtle but in abundance. For one, isn't it true that we have started questioning ourselves about everyday life experiences more so than before? And found indelibly, that we grow more dissatisfied with life each time around. Life, in our own context, may not have deprove that significantly to warrant such a radical change but yet these feelings are undeniably real. My only conclusion is that if life didn't change, then we did. Of course, this is just an assumption made by me. There is no statistics to prove like-or-otherwise.

The other factor has more to do with our immediate environment than the former. As a typical Singaporean youth, I would approximate the age one has to start making, or finally realises one is making life changing decisions for oneself to be his early twenties. This is the period that one's future prospect becomes not a distant dream but an imminent lifeline. Reality has caught up with our dreams whether we like it or not. This is the time we begin seriously examining our options with fear and anxiety; the time we chart our route in life, and the time procrastination reaches a dead end. Here on out, we face multiple crossroads, ups and downs, success and failure, hope and regret all driven by the decisions we make in everyday life. If the past 20 years of our life is the run-down to the edge of the cliff then the only step left is to take that leap of faith off the cliff. Whether we soar high above or fall down below is really up to one's aptitude and that I believe is what turns boys into men. Or for that matter, a child into an adult.