To get older is always a significant milestone in one's life, in spite of how some may choose to dismiss it. Last year, it signified to me the looming A-levels, and another year closer to enlistment. It was also my first time having quail. We grow and change with each year that passes, but in addition, we also gain and lose much.

Turning nineteen, I now begin to see the need to be more appreciative and grateful of the many blessings, and even the trials that are in my life. I'm trying, each day to see it as a means for God to mold and guide me. It was by no means a revelation that dawned upon me on the 11th of April, but it was a lesson that was slowly inculcated in me over the past few months.

I've come to appreciate the really great friends that I have around me - Joel, Joel, Ansen, Nathanael. I'm terrible when it comes to people (yes, I'm shy), so it's particularly wonderful to have this [small] group of people whom you can trust and depend on, people whom you can form a connection with without that lingering sense of feeling awkward. Such people know that you love croissants, and take the special effort to get a few for you from a bakery that you once mused you wanted to try. Such people spend a day creating a handmade card for you, personalised, thought out. Such people are willing to be dragged around by you for a day, indulging your whims and fancies (I do believe I can be quite absurd at times). So thank you guys, brunch with you all was especially wonderful, and so was the time wandering around afterwards.

On a side note, the 10th was the first time I had risotto; I had it at Food for Thought, quite nice indeed.

Only towards the later half of my BMTC days did I begin to realise how easy I had it in Bronco; I have wonderful section mates, [generally] wonderful sergeants (they were reasonable), and a really nice platoon commander. I do believe it is a part of God's promise to never let anyone endure more than they can take - which in my case, is evidently not a lot. My apprehension and distaste for all things military prior to my enlistment was probably the reason why I was blessed with such a relaxed (everything is of course relative) company, and such reasonable commanders.

So now, what I need to do is to take these lessons learnt - of perseverance, appreciation and the fear of the Lord, and apply them to the next challenge that I'll face: life as a rifleman in an infantry unit.

Oh God please help me!

On another side note, each time I write about my life, I feel as though it'll all come together to become some sort of bildungsroman or something of that sort.