The Post which Will Grow Back as Grass

Today is the 6th October 2009.





Rewind a year ago, on this very fateful day, yours truly created history in Changi Naval Base when I misjudged a simple right turn and crashed my car into a lamp post.

It happened in slow motion; the infinitesimal second which it happened seem to stretch out for an eternity. The car bumped right into the base of lamp post 65 of the base. It hung for the briefest of all moments, before crashing backwards with a sickening thud.





The first instincts of survival kicked in first. I actually thought, for one crazy moment, that no one had saw and I could drive and escape away. Then the truth hit me and I saw people rushing forward to help me out.

Blood was welling up in my mouth but the only thing I had in mind was that I blew my chances of going to a local university because surely, surely, the detention barracks await me for causing a bloody fucking stupid accident.





I was pretty much in a daze for the rest of the night. My buddy Aanandaa sent me to the hospital, my sisters met up with me there, there were phone calls going all around.

Then I was sent back to camp. My warrant officer was there to help me, when other investigating officers came down to grill, interrogate and question me.

I was sent home at about 11pm later. No one else spoke to me, which suited me fine. I'm not sure I wanted to talk much, having endured probably the worst night in my life.





I guess I lived under a constant shadow of worry ever since that accident. I went to my recourse BMT in Tekong shortly. It was supposed to a seven-week holiday, but there wasn't a week I wasn't calling back my unit to find out about my sentence.

Eventually, on the very last week of BMT, I finally called my Officer-in-Charge, to find out that he would be giving me SOL (basically a confinement) of 14 days in camp. No DB. The shadow was finally lifted.





The SOL was served this February. It was my second longest stay away from home. It's funny what a second of carelessness can cause.

Thankfully I had a lot of great friends in my unit, bringing me stuff from out of camp. Aanandaa (who coincidentally had an accident the very next day) was a great company for the first week, and the second week past by quickly with work and jokes.





In retrospect, it seemed to me that a certain someone up there wanted to teach me a lesson. I was young, not too experienced but getting cocky.

I also thought that I was lucky enough because the lamp post fell away from the car. Had it landed on the vehicle instead, I guess I wouldn't be escaping with just a cut lip and distended jaw.





So it's been a year. Time really flies.

I still think about the accident from time to time. Whenever I drive out of camp, I will deliberately drive past the new lamp post, reminding myself what I've done and will never ever do again.

So kids, drive safe, drive responsibly, and think of your loved ones whenever you feel like doing something stupid while driving.