Optique

I'm not very knowledgeable about the options I have in the NS (National Service), except for SISPECT (something to do with specialists), OCS and being a clerk. By default, most of the people would end up being in SISPECT, with the better ones going on to OCS. You can’t even opt to be a clerk, unless you have a medical condition that doesn’t enable you to carry out your duties (I might fall under this category).
My brother asked me during dinner if I would like to join OCS. I made up my mind long ago already on this issue: no, I’m just not interested. That’s when he proceeded with his screwed up logic of why I should go OCS, because of the respect, the pay, the position, the exposure. He went on to challenge me by giving him my reasons on ‘why not’. Apparently my ‘not interested’ argument failed miserably. He’ll go on asking “ Don’t you want more respect and better pay?”, like I said before, he has pretty screwed up logic. The worse part which came inevitably wasn’t entirely unexpected – my father had to chip in his input.
He went from what the purpose of NS is (on topic) to Malaysia’s sultans (‘on’ topic still) within fifteen minutes. I got to hand it to him, I’m not capable of rambling on for that long if I know the person who I’m talking to just can’t be bothered to listen. Thankfully, I managed to catch the main point of contention: everyone should serve to the best of his capability, and it’s not an issue of whether they like it or not. He pointed out that (some important person) criticized lawyers in the past who failed tests intentionally so that they would only go through two years of training instead of three for officers. The argument is as follows: since they're more capable, they shouldn't be so selfish and should instead continue to serve the nation.
I didn’t say anything at all ; I didn’t need to. They conveniently forgot that they’re in OCS, not someone who’s NOT INTERESTED in NS at all. I don’t want to control people, I never got a kick out of being higher ranked than others, but I wouldn’t mind the higher pay. In my opinion, such positions should be left to those who are REALLY passionate about it, because they would be the ones who would flex the most muscle out of it. You can't fit a square into a circle; it's pointless to do so.
History was repeating itself. My brothers felt that they’re “superior” beings all because they were the heads of their uniformed groups back in secondary schools, where as I was merely just in charge of the Secondary Ones, which in my opinion was a very sought after position already. This morning they asked if I got put in any effort in squash upon finding out that I didn’t make it into the team (something I chose not to say for precisely this reason). My interested waned out drastically for personal reasons which I hadn’t shared with anyone yet.
Understanding is underrated more often than not, self-assuming beliefs happen to be the reverse. I refused to explain myself – none of those narrow-minded people would ever get it. I am going to serve the nation by going for NS, but I can’t be bothered (tentatively) to try to make it to OCS.
Putting yourself in other's shoes is that difficult. It's nothing to do with the size.

Army: We are the unfortunate, led by the unqualified, doing the unnecessary, for the ungrateful.