Updates Part 2 - Thoughts About My Future and Career

Have also recently been thinking about my future alot. There is just one more year to my ORD date which gets closer day by day. Have been very keen to sign on to the army, but very restricted due to my posting, my rank and the time that i decided i want to turn regular. Got quite a few paths to take but the most common answer i always get is tt the earliest i could leave is after ATEC. Which will be like the end of this year, so i might as well ORD? I duno.

Many of my friends are persuading me not to do something "foolish" and sign my life to a so called "bad place to be in". But after careful and much thought, i realise that i do not mind such a vocation and life, and that i might actually enjoy it. Trainings are tough, and politics may be aplenty, but where else in the working world isnt there such things happening? I feel that it is how we handle ourselves and situations that will make a difference. True?

Another issue will be the issue of money i guess. Have thought about after ORD-ing and leaving the army, what will i be doing? I only have an O Levels cert, and it will be difficult looking for a job tt pays well. Yes i do want to study more, but where is the money going to come from? I do not want to burden my parents anymore as they still have two other children, and the house, and bills etc. to worry about. Yes, the issue of self-sufficiency arises.

Right now, from what i see, i have two choices. One, i join the ADF, and hopefully study part time. Another, is i take up the joint poly and SAF program. Where the army pays for my full time studies at a polytechnic and then i serve a bond afterwards as a spec. Im still thinking, cos both has their pros and cons. After joining the ADF, work and study would most probably be a concurrent thing, tts IF i get time to study. But the fact is that i will be sent for spec training almost immediately after i sign. The other way is tt i study full time at a poly, then i go for spec training after poly and when i serve the bond. But how old will i be then? These are lingering issues, that only time could iron out for me i guess.