It been roughly 3 years since I first became an NPCC Cadet, and it has taught me a lot of life skills that is useful to me. NPCC like all Uniformed Groups have unique activities that most people would not be able to enjoy till they are much older in life. Who would thought of a 14 year old could build a shelter with just bamboo sticks, twine and poncho or who would imagine that a 14 year old could shoot a pistol – in Singapore of course.

It has been one long ride from a Sec 1 Cadet to a Sec 3 Cadet. When I first joined, things were quite new and there were sets and sets of rules and regulations to follow. We are not used to doing simple things like saying “Good Afternoon Sir or Ma’am” or saying “Room” when the Sir or Ma’am enters the room – between it sounded like Groom when we were first taught and we were like wondering what is Groom? Eventually we were used to doing all the things and we have also gotten used of the multiple scolding whenever things are not done properly or when we have made a mistake. Not long after we joined, our life would be evolved around the Dark Blue uniform, and we feel good wearing those uniforms. However things don’t look right at the start, some of us our uniformed is wrongly ironed, some of us did not know how to polish our boots and some of us did not seasoned the Beret properly. We screwed up our uniformed and the poor sirs and Ma’am have to explain everything to us again on how to do this and that. Eventually we more or less learn how to do things the proper way.

Doing Drills in Sec 1 i have to admit it, it is boring in a way. Our first drill was to stand at attention and stand at ease – serdia and senangdiri. We were like doing that for countless of times till we get it right, and its pure plain boredom doing it just to get that perfection of the bang – that’s right basic first! But soon we got that near solid bang and there we learn more drills that are fun and nice to do.

It has always been our joy to watch other people march in parades, but now we ourselves could take part in it. My first parade was on National Day when I was in Sec 2. When I first went for my first rehearsal, I was quite nervous, as I did not really know what would happen next. I admit I was complaining about the long hours of rehearsals that we have to do and also standing like a statue for I’m not sure how long, but it was like a killer to me. When the big day arrive, you can literally feel your heart pounding in excitement, at the same time you feel nervous as you hope that you would not screw up the whole parade. After the parade, you feel the sense of relief and an indescribable feeling.

One of the big things in Uniformed Groups is camp, and my first camp in NPCC was a cohesion camp. It allows us to bond together as a whole and we can learn a lot of teambuilding skills in camp. However our camps are not the type of leisure outing which u camp in the forest and do fly-fishing by the river. Our camps also requires us a lot of discipline and well responsibility – for your belongings! We have to rush for shower and finish our food all on time, and when time is not met, you get a scolding from your CIs and sirs and that dampened your mood. ATC is much worse, there are so many CIs around and when we do things wrongly, we get scolding from not one not two but many CIs. We thought of them like a time bomb or a volcano ready to explode at any given point of time, but who could blame them? They are there to get the camp going and without them, I think we would be a bunch of monkeys running around – Credit goes to them and those who have helped out considerably.

Eventually at the last day of the camp you are like ‘Yes! Last day of camp can go home and sleep’ and then there’s the debrief, where you had to write your reflection and give your feedback. One of the most indescribable irritating questions is, “Is the camp fun?” CIs, Sirs and all of us knew it, the answer is “Fun, fun, fun, oh the camp is fun!” then the sir goes “what is fun” and you are like “er… everything is fun, the games is fun and that is fun and this is fun…” Yeah right! Cadets are just so afraid to talk about the not so fun part and we will always find means and ways to end the debrief as quick as possible – you just have to admit it, even a CI who was once a cadet admit it. Come to think of it, the camp allows us to do things we probably won’t get to do in our lifetime. It helps us to get away from our comfort zone of life computer gaming and stuffs, and help us to experience new outdoor activities that could not be largely found in our small little country of ours.

Now as a Sec 3 cadet, we are like the seniors of the squad after the Sec 4 went through the pass out parade. We have to guide our juniors with our experiences and using the MOI. Sure it feels good leading, but now we have to learn how to control a squad, and learn the joy and pain of organising camps. Also you will get to experience a wee bit of what the CI does just to get things going, and the frustrations when the standards are not met.

Overall, NPCC can be fun, boring, frustrating or whatever you can think of, but it is the big word "Teamwork" and the "ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL” attitude, that really bond us together and make NPCC a whole lot interesting.

Guo Zhi Ping 24/10/2008