Is it just me, or does the post-poly “Army Wall” feel like a prison sentence?
Look, I know what the “standard” Singaporean response is. “Just serve and get it over with, lah.” “Everyone also go through it, why you so weak?” But can we just for one second stop the toxic positivity and acknowledge how absolutely soul-crushing it is to be 20 years old, finishing three years of Poly where you finally found your groove, only to be told: “Cool, now go put your entire life on a 2-year pause.”
I’m sitting here looking at my graduation gown and then looking at the Enlistment Act, and I genuinely feel like running away. It’s not even about the physical chiong-ing or the botak hair—it’s the mental realization that my autonomy is being deleted for 730 days.
In Poly, you finally taste what it’s like to be an adult. You manage your own projects, you have your own cliques, maybe you even started a side hustle or interned at a place that actually values your brain. You’re just starting to build momentum. Then, bam, Safra membership and a green letter. While your female peers and international friends are heading straight into Year 1 of Uni or starting their careers, you’re stuck in Tekong learning how to fold a blanket into a square.
The FOMO is real and it is violent. By the time I finish NS and get my degree, I’ll be 25 or 26. My peers will already be Assistant Managers or traveling the world with their own earned income, and I’ll be a “Fresh Grad” competing with people three years younger than me who didn’t have to spend two years forgetting everything they learned in their Diploma.
I love my family, and I like my life here, but every time I pass Changi Airport now, I just wonder what would happen if I just… didn’t come back. The system is so rigid. We spend our whole lives being told to “run the race,” but then they tie our shoelaces together for two years and expect us to still be competitive globally.
Does anyone else feel this absolute dread? Or am I just the only one who thinks that “serving the nation” shouldn’t feel like being penalized for being born a Singaporean son? I feel like I’m mourning the death of my early 20s before they’ve even properly started.
TL;DR: Finished Poly, feeling the NS dread. The two-year opportunity cost feels like a literal scam and I just want to disappear.