ZX, He Has Grown So Much..

He was from China. He has to go through the NS stint to become a Singaporean. Guess what? He will be collecting his pink I/C next week. He is an officer in the army now, but ord-ing in a week’s time.

I remembered him as a very determined guy. He could be a little slow at grasping concepts, but the beautiful thing was he never gave up. He was particular close to his class and he felt very comfortable asking all sorts of questions during tutorial sessions. He often stayed back late in the evening (with some of his peers) trying to get his work done. A few times, I approached him to see if he needed assistance. He usually declined politely as he preferred to figure out things by himself, most of the time. Towards the last leg of the battle, he improved rather significantly. I am proud of him.

Oh, hope I am not painting a nerdy picture of him! He was involved in many sports as well. Just yesterday, he was showing me one of his many old trophies. It was a dark injury mark on his left shin. No joke, a javelin brushed pass that particular patch during one of his JC1 days, leaving his sock bloody red.

Anyway, it was over a simple meal yesterday that I had a chance to catch up with him and witnessed how he has grown. There were quite a few people around and he happened to sit in front of me and generally we talked more.

He related how he won the hearts of his company of drivers, mostly hokkien soldiers with tattoos all over them. With a very contented smile, he related how he had played a part in helping them to quit smoking and attended to their more personal problems. In other words, these hokkien soldiers trust him enough to open their hearts to him. At other instances, these hokkien soldiers also stood up for him. Don't undermine the power of these hokkien soldiers. Haha..

Sometimes, his drivers need to be on duty well past midnight. They would be driving on expressways for long distances but must be at a speed capped at 50 km/h. Any driver will tell you that it is quite a feat as the driver could easily feel tired and fall asleep. Ha.. Many superiors may be quite harsh on their drivers and may use threats to ensure things were done by all means. This ZX .. erm.. bought sweets for his drivers to help them stay awake. A simple gesture and sweet indeed. Haha..

He is one of the few guys that says to me “my arm days are indeed very fulfilling”. He did not say it is a breeze. In fact, as an officer, he has quite many difficult people to deal with. He remembers well the many difficult times he had went through and how he survived many storms along his path. On the contrary, there are too many true blue Singaporeans only telling me or complaining to me about their "army daze".

Now, he is only looking ahead, planning how he could get a loan for his uni education and how to find a job to supplement his daily expenses in the long run (from now and throughout his future uni days). This young man is so full of hope and chooses to see many things in a positive light. His fighting spirit is indeed unquestionable.

Aiya, I should have taken a picture of/with him.
Ha.. But I don’t think it’s necessary. His image is kind of imprint in my memory.
Wishing him all the best.

Army is indeed MAN in the making, if we believe in it.
However (bad) the situation is, we can choose to learn from it.
We can complain all about it. But what have we become?

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有一位圣者这么说：

天地无私，故能成其大；
日月无私，故能成其明；
圣人无私，故能成其我。
圣人事业，
不是一种“为我”的事业，而是一种“为人”的事业。
不是一种救己的事业，而是一种救人的事业。
我一为己，则我只能成就一个有限的小我；
我为人人，则我便能存在于人人的心中；
我为天下苍生，则我便能存在于天下苍生的心中。
我与天地万物为一体，则我便与万物而永生不灭。
还我与天地，则天地永在，而我亦永在。