Waking Up
Waking up at 0400H was easy when you know what the "dangers" are of waking up late - or getting late in formation. I do not even know where exactly to go. I barely learned anything in CAT* in high school. What could I expect? What should I do when I find no specific person to ask?
I don't remember any dream with my long sleep (I learned later that the sleep I have had is longer than I would have when I become a cadet officer). It was a dreamless one, but not really a restful one. I feel like it had its purpose - to clear my mind for the training day.
It was also easy to leave the sleeping place. I have prepared last night what I would do from the first thing of opening my eyes. I get up immediately - without question or thinking of not getting up immediately. I got up.
My uniform was downstairs. I went downstairs and heated the pan to fry eggs. Rice is not exactly cold, but just like that from last night. I ate with a definite thinking of what MIGHT happen, not knowing that it would all be wrong.
It took me about 15 minutes to finish the egg and the rice. I drink water and then proceeded to brush my teeth. It took me about five minutes.
I proceeded to take a bath when my mother got down to help me prepare. Actually, there's not much that she can do. She just prepared for going to mass - something that I've had a challenge of doing starting ROTC. But I always go to mass after the training day - until I changed religion.
The water was cold, of course. It is something that I have expected. My class normally starts 0830H, so I have the time to take a bath around 0630H or 0700H. By that time, water is not as cold as it is when it is not yet 0500H. Still, with my mind on the unkonwn but a purpose of surviving this day, I took the first drop of cold water.
Five minutes later, I was out of the bathroom. Well done (So bad, I learned later).
I got up to dress up. I wore my jeans and white shirt. The rubber shoes is an old one, but a comfortable-enough one. It was enough.
The logbook said I should only bring the lecture notebook, thickler notebook, thickler pages, white hanky, and black and red ballpens. Aside from that, I only had my uniform to think of. It was Type-C, blue jeans and white collarless shirt, and garrison buckle.
I learned from my father that toothpaste would serve the purpose of shining metal parts. I used it for shining my buckle. The instructions in the logbook said we should shine the buckle "inside out." I thought it was a figure of speech. I learned later that the military virtually has no speech to figure. Everything was literal.
The logbook also told us to shave. I thought I had nothing to shave on my face. I had little hair above my lips. My mother said I should not shave it because it would grow thicker if I do. I did not shave it thinking it would pass inspection. I was wrong.
I went out of the house, and walked three blocks to where I could take a jeepney to Pedro Gil.
It took me less then seven minutes to travel more than the distance of five LRT stations. I thought it was early, it was 0530H. But when I got off the jeepney, I saw a platoon of cadets already in formation.
I don't remember any dream with my long sleep (I learned later that the sleep I have had is longer than I would have when I become a cadet officer). It was a dreamless one, but not really a restful one. I feel like it had its purpose - to clear my mind for the training day.
It was also easy to leave the sleeping place. I have prepared last night what I would do from the first thing of opening my eyes. I get up immediately - without question or thinking of not getting up immediately. I got up.
My uniform was downstairs. I went downstairs and heated the pan to fry eggs. Rice is not exactly cold, but just like that from last night. I ate with a definite thinking of what MIGHT happen, not knowing that it would all be wrong.
It took me about 15 minutes to finish the egg and the rice. I drink water and then proceeded to brush my teeth. It took me about five minutes.
I proceeded to take a bath when my mother got down to help me prepare. Actually, there's not much that she can do. She just prepared for going to mass - something that I've had a challenge of doing starting ROTC. But I always go to mass after the training day - until I changed religion.
The water was cold, of course. It is something that I have expected. My class normally starts 0830H, so I have the time to take a bath around 0630H or 0700H. By that time, water is not as cold as it is when it is not yet 0500H. Still, with my mind on the unkonwn but a purpose of surviving this day, I took the first drop of cold water.
Five minutes later, I was out of the bathroom. Well done (So bad, I learned later).
I got up to dress up. I wore my jeans and white shirt. The rubber shoes is an old one, but a comfortable-enough one. It was enough.
The logbook said I should only bring the lecture notebook, thickler notebook, thickler pages, white hanky, and black and red ballpens. Aside from that, I only had my uniform to think of. It was Type-C, blue jeans and white collarless shirt, and garrison buckle.
I learned from my father that toothpaste would serve the purpose of shining metal parts. I used it for shining my buckle. The instructions in the logbook said we should shine the buckle "inside out." I thought it was a figure of speech. I learned later that the military virtually has no speech to figure. Everything was literal.
The logbook also told us to shave. I thought I had nothing to shave on my face. I had little hair above my lips. My mother said I should not shave it because it would grow thicker if I do. I did not shave it thinking it would pass inspection. I was wrong.
I went out of the house, and walked three blocks to where I could take a jeepney to Pedro Gil.
It took me less then seven minutes to travel more than the distance of five LRT stations. I thought it was early, it was 0530H. But when I got off the jeepney, I saw a platoon of cadets already in formation.
posted by Ricky at 6:22 PM
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