Hi I’m Tebo Nicholson,
I’m half Singaporean Chinese (mom) and half Canadian (dad), but i was born in Singapore and have grown up here my whole life.
I previously went to ACS J for primary school and then transferred to an international school (UWC) for the rest of my school until I finished IB at 18 years old.
National service has always been something that I recognized that I had to do, I only considered not doing it for a little while, but I got used to the idea of doing it from a young age. But having grown up in Singapore and most of my closest relatives living in Singapore, I call it home and want to have the option of coming back here to work / start a family when I’m older.
If you have a Singapore passport and choose to not serve, you won’t be allowed to work in Singapore, and you will only be able to come back as a visitor/tourist for short periods of time. Personally I think Singapore is a great place to grow up with a strong education and safety, so I want to have at least the option when I’m older.
I think I’ve had a pretty unique experience of NS so far:
- Enlisted to SCDF (civil defence) in July 2023
- Finished basic rescue training (1 month)
- Got posted to fire side (versus medical side) and did one month of basic fire fighting training
- Went to the Sergeant course (SCC or section commander course), finished the 5 month course in December 2023
- Posted out to Kallang fire station as a section commander
- Was offered a slot in the officer course (RCC or rota commander course), joined the course in March and finished in July 2024
- Posted out to Advanced fire fighting branch as an instructor for all fire and medical side trainees (this is where I am now and I’ll stay here until may 2025 when I ORD aka. Operationally ready date (finish NS, become ORNS)
Its unique because I got to do pretty much everything in civil defence, training, fire fighting and front line operations, command and control and now instructing.
I feel pretty content and feel like I made the most out of NS so these are the few things I feel like are good about doing in (at least in SCDF):
- You learn a lot of stuff and get a lot of unique experiences that you can’t (and likely won’t) find anywhere else
- Fighting actual fires (when else will you be able to have this kind of life experience of actually saving people and fighting fires. In my short tour of station I attended 5 confirmed fires and many rescue / road accident cases)
- Seeing real cases
- Opportunities to work on projects
- Teaching and instructing
- Events planning (like SGFPC)
- You get a lot of free time to focus on whatever you want to do.
- Your NS period is practically 2 years to just do whatever you want to on the side of NS. Whatever sports or arts or activities you have wanted to do but will never have the time to in uni or once you start working, this is the time to. E.g. sports, arts, learning code or languages, doing online courses, getting a driving licence, doing a marathon etc. I’m currently training for a marathon and joining a dance competition.
- Growth
- In NS you are put in a lot of challenging situations that you won’t likely encounter again. In SCDF you face high pressure situations that potentially have the lives of civilians on the line. When you’re a trainee you are put through relatively rigourous mental and physical training so you get a lot fitter physically and mentally resilient. I think you grow most when you’re out of your comfort zone, so NS is a great place for that. On top of that, you will leave NS a lot more sure of yourself and hopefully more confident and experienced.
- Make new friends from all backgrounds
- You’re never alone in NS, and the great thing about it is that everyone is going through the same thing together so the bonds you create are lasting.
For people who are enlisting to SCDF or considering doing NS, here are some tips from what I’ve learnt:
- Do what works for YOU.
- Don’t come in with the mindset that this is a waste of time. NS can be really fulfilling if you actually make use of your time and push yourself.
- Come in with an open mindset. Drop your ego or whatever chip on your shoulder and just be nice to people. Making friends in camp is really easy if you just choose to not be a mean or cocky person and choose to have initiative. Help each other out and don’t act arrogant, everyone is going through the same thing together.
- Keeping busy or at least working towards some type of goal makes the time pass a lot faster. (e.g. right now I have 8 months left of NS and still have a lot I want to achieve in this time)
Hope this helps, any questions feel free to reach out to me.