It’s been a long 2 years. Two years of service in a green pixelated uniform, in an organization that demands utter loyalty and unswerving diligence.

In these 2 years, I’ve been forced to grow up a lot. I hope I can say that I’ve matured, though sometimes I still see flashes of childish petulance within myself. In the army, I learned to keep my head down and push through. I learned that no matter how tough things seemed, there was always someone suffering a worse fate than I. In the air force, I learned to be mentally strong and to push myself past my limits. Things that I once thought impossible were within reach. It has been an exhilarating ride, these 2 years. They’ve taught me a lot, and given me so much.

I’ve been lucky, really, to have the course mates I had. I often marvel at how close we are, despite the squabbles and clashes we had in the course of our work. How, despite having different job scopes, we’re still pretty close. It’s something that I’m really thankful for; they formed a support network of sorts when I was about to go crazy from all the pressures of work.

The cockster, whom I’ve known for so long, and has always supported me without complaint.

The hardcore IPPT gold, who was always good for a few laughs and company.

The round boy, who despite having his own quirks, never complained when I had to offload work to him.

The white guy, who tried his best to help, even though he had his A levels.

The Tasmanian gamer, who was always there to lend a helping hand.

The other platoon, though we had our differences, gave us their help unreservedly.

These are people I’ll always be grateful for. If we go off into the big wide world and our paths never cross again, I’ll always remember them for what they did, and simply who they were.