I Could/Should Have Been An Army Man

So a piece in The Star today brought back some fond memories for me. It's about the gruelling "interview" process young hopefuls need to go through in order to get admitted into the prestigious Royal Military College.
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It's something I went through myself some 25 years ago and the experience actually left a lasting impression on me. And no, I didn't do it 'cos I was forced into it, but because I genuinely wanted to be an RMC boy. "Askar" was actually one of my original "cita-cita", if you would believe it.

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Anyway, the whole process started back in JB when I was in standard 6. We had to take some sort of written test, and then a thorough medical check-up. Pass both, and you're off to RMC itself in Sungai Besi, KL. Which I managed to do.

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I remember taking the KTM train from JB to KL. And went we arrived, all of us were loaded on to army trucks to take us to the college. I was damn excited just sitting in the truck and breathing in the polluted KL air.

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At the college, we were assigned dorm rooms and the "interview" process started. I remember we could only wear all-white sports wear, and we were immediately taught how to make our beds, military style.

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Then we had to go through some gruelling physical tests including running, doing tons of push-ups and chin-ups and other forms of organised torture. But guess what, I passed all of those as well, and actually got into the final interview stage.

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I felt confident that I'd get in, but in the end, they gave me the snub. Ah well. But I think my late parents were kind of relieved.

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But if I had gone through, I'd be launching bazookas now, instead of online dramas. I'd probably have spent some time in exotic places like, um, Rwanda, or Somalia. And I'd at least be Major Zulkifli by now, looking something like this...

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