In Continuum.

Life: For a Period of Time Only

I have a shirt that i love,a t-shirt that says 'Life' at the front in bold,and on the back it says 'For a Period of Time Only'.I like the simplicity of the message,jumping at you with such power and simplicity all at the same time.I think someone should buy this t-shirt for every teenager out there,so that perhaps they will realise that life really is,like the t-shirt mentions,for a period of time only.

Puvin is in charge of signal in our company.He used to be the runner of 2IC(By 'Runner',it also means 'Slave' or 'Maid',depending on the context),and he was posted to our company sometime towards the end of last year.You wouldnt expect him to be,in any way,rebellious to the system in the army,because after all he does have that scholarly look,with a diploma in Aerospace under his belt,as well as those well-tended to hair of his and the pair of spectacles,making him look smarter and more diligent than most people at the company line(Perhaps even me,because in the company line i am usually working around in slippers,with my pants folded up to my knees and walking around with my hair all over the place).Basically,he really is the last person you would expect to break any sort of rules.But this time,he broke it,and it broke it big time.

Sometime during the early months of this year,Puvin disappeared from the camp.He blamed it on a back surgery,and the long-termed MC that he obtained from the doctor due to that operation.So he was absent from a hell lot of outfields,as well as trainings in and outside of camp.It's not like the superiors could've done anything though,because with a MC there really isnt much you can do.And a back surgery certainly isnt something you should mess around with.

So he remained at home,and his MC stretched all the way from then till the end of September.The guys in camp forgot totally about his existence,the way he looked,or the name of this little Indian guy who used to be in charge of signals in camp.Basically,in our memory,he vanished into thin air like the haze after the rain.But that changed soon after he appeared one night back in camp to endorse his MC at the Medical Centre,and that was when we were reminded of his long absence from our lives,and curiosity raved throughout the company line,accompanied by soft whispers and chatterings amongst the men.

Zen the Medic(Before he left)was there when he endorsed the MC.But he didnt have a MC,and claimed that it was with his doctor.When asked to get the MC from his doctor,he said that the doctor was overseas.That alone was enough to bring him down,because how many surgical doctors in Singapore goes overseas?I mean,it's not like it is common place for doctors to be deported to Iraq or Afghanistan for medical aid or something like that.The MO then went on to check his scar,but there werent any surgical scars.So there he was,standing alone in the office of the MO,exposed and busted.

He was arrested a couple of days later,probably sometime this week at home.He's waiting to go to court now,and is probably going straight to the Detention Barracks soon after.He ran way from camp for a little more than half a year without a MC and faked the surgery,and i imagine him being behind bars for...a long long time.

Anyway,my point about this thread is how disgusted i was when i heard the news,and how unappreciative people are towards their lives.When it comes to material needs,and when somebody buys you that really cool headphones or handphone,you are so grateful to them,and you treasure them so well as if it is going to save you life or something.But when it comes to 'Life',how many of us can truly say that we havent taken it for granted,one way or another?

He had his whole life planned out for him,with his Aerospace Diploma and already a good job waiting for him to ORD.But he HAD to run away from camp and get his ass charged for it.I thought it was incredibly dumb of him to do so,simply because this is not a card game we are talking about.This is Russian Roulette here,and as you pass that pistol around,you squeeze that trigger and there goes the rest of your life through that bullet hole.Your life drains through that little black hole in your temple,and along with the blood it flows down your neck and body into the dirty gutter,utterly forgotten.

It is the same with people desperate for a bit of fun,for that adrenaline rush,or the craving for release or so-called freedom.You take drugs,you join a gang.You abuse alcohol and you beat your girlfriend.You threaten a girl in the lift and you rape her afterwards,stuff like that.They dont realise that by doing so,you are shortening your life span,even if the physical end of it doesnt change.You are closing doors here,shutting and locking them as you go on on your killing spree,murdering yourself.Life isnt something that is going to be returned to you,and dont you think that Yellow Ribbon project the government is desperately trying to promote is going to work for you.When you are blacklisted,you are blacklisted.You are not going to get an office job,you are not going to get highly paid.You are going to be looked down upon,and no matter how charitable your future employer is,you are still going to be an ex-con who threw away his life as if he worthed nothing.

Life,really is for a period of time only.I think technology really puts this is perspective with upload/download progress bars.You see that green rectangular box slowly filling up with green stuff in MSN,and you wait anxiously for it to hit the very end.If you take that empty box to be your life,by the time you are twenty you are already about 1/4 through your whole life.That is about 25% gone already,and you decide to throw away the other 3/4 just because you wanted to have fun,because you were afraid of commitments and responsibilities?Shame on you Puvin,shame on you.