SINGAPORE: A Singaporean university student has surprised himself by admitting something he never thought he would say: He actually misses National Service (NS).
Posting on the r/NationalServiceSG subreddit forum, the student shared a reflection many former servicemen may only quietly recognise. University life, he wrote, has made him realise that free time no longer feels really free.
“In uni, free time feels more like guilt time…”
“Now that I’m in uni, I don’t have any real free time now,” he wrote. Even moments without schoolwork feel borrowed. That time, he explained, “technically spent prepping for internships, certs, projects, CCAS (Co-Curricular Activities), networking, studying notes, or just trying to make some money on weekends.”
The result is a constant sense of mental busyness. “Free time doesn’t feel free anymore. It feels more like guilt time,” he said.
By contrast, NS drew clearer boundaries between work and rest. “In NS, free time was really free time,” he recalled, describing his sense of nostalgia, and booking out early or having rest time in camp meant exactly that. “Just phone, Netflix, sleep, slack around, talk cock.” Weekends, he added, were “actually weekends,” without having to worry about part-time jobs, assignments, or deadlines creeping behind my back. I didn’t even cherish it properly then.”
“Weird thing is, the best sleeps of my life happened in NS…”
One of the most unexpected things he misses is sleep. “Weird thing is, the best sleeps of my life happened in NS,” he shared, describing a camp that was “cold and quiet” with a fan blasting at just the right strength.
“There was this strange serenity in being away from civilisation,” he wrote. “The outside world paused for a bit. Nothing to chase. Nothing to calculate. Just sleep.”
It is a far cry from the common portrayal of NS as nothing but exhaustion, yet the post highlights how simplicity can sometimes outweigh comfort.
“I also miss my platoon and bunkmates…”
Beyond routines and rest, the student also misses his comrades. He reflected on his platoon and bunkmates, acknowledging that they are no longer close and may never be again.
“Looking back, we were solid,” he wrote. Being together five days a week, going through stress and nonsense, laughing at the most stupid things, complaining, and suffering created bonds that felt deeper. Celebrating book-out, he said, felt like “Deepavali and Chinese New Year combined. Friendships felt deeper because life was simpler.”
In university, forming that kind of connection feels harder. “Everyone has their own timetable. Their own goals. Their own path.” During NS, there was no choice but to be together, and “because of that, we genuinely bonded.”
“NS is something to only reminisce about when it’s over…”
The student, however, was careful not to romanticise everything that happened in the camp. NS, he said, was not always good. There were undesirable tasks, gruelling training sessions, guard duty at 3 a.m., and dealing with difficult people “who made you question humanity.” Yet even the worst days felt manageable. Problems were clear-cut. “You always knew exactly what the problem was, who was involved and when it would end.”
University stress, by comparison, feels layered and constant. Academic pressure, career anxiety, financial worries, and social expectations all arrive at once. “Maybe NS wasn’t all paradise,” he concluded, “but somehow everything felt more manageable. Back then, if I was tired, I slept. If I was bored, I used my phone. If the day was rubbish, tomorrow would be fine.”
In a final moment of honesty, he added that if someone had told him to appreciate NS while he was serving in his “two-year personal hell,” he would have told them to also “go to hell!” But now, he felt that NS moments were special to him, and it is “something to only reminisce about when it’s over.”
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