My ORD Speech

Next week, my indirect understudy will be graduating from two years of NS!

I hardly enjoyed my stint as a clerk, especially the final months leading to my own ORD. Yet these final few months also yielded a friend. Amidst the simmering animosities with a malingering colleague, I am really grateful to have someone who accepts his responsibilities and recognizes the work I’m trying to do.

I don’t know how he has spent the time after my ORD, or how his colleagues responded to him. I chat with him on WhatsApp occasionally, but workplace difficulties are often difficult for outsiders to appreciate. Not that he complained. Nonetheless, I’m happy for him that the journey is ending. I’m sure he’s happy too. Like, who wouldn’t be!

To mark the occasion, here’s the draft to the short speech I gave to my department on 21 May last year:

I think we NSFs have the impression that, whether we do more work or less, fast or slow, we get the same rewards. Allowance, promotion, maybe even Best Soldier. It can be tempting to try to get by giving the minimum expected of us, which is a personal choice.

But more than any tangible rewards, I find that the work I do in NS reflects the person I am, and the way I respond to challenges shapes the person I become. For that I thank everyone who has been a part of my journey. There are times I feel tired – even unhappy – but I am happy, because I have become more organized, more focused and more fulfilled doing things that I hope makes it easier or better for those who come after me, who replace me. That is what I will remember when I look back.

It’s been some time. It feels short at the end of it all, but two years is not a short time. So make the most out of it!

Note: I adapted portions of it for My ORD Thoughts.

What do you make of it? Combative? Battered but optimistic? Well, such was my frame of mind that I started thinking about this speech months in advance. I’m glad I had enough time to neutralize my burning desire to deep-fry THAT colleague with damning words. Anyway, he took leave that day. I was happier in his absence.

The mishandled saga – by all parties, I guess – continued to cast a lingering shadow on me for a few months. But now I’m free. (Kind of… I still don’t want to see that guy ever again.) I guess I’m indeed the better for it.

And that’s why I think I will share more stories or snippets like this.

They are quite aplenty.