Solution to an Awkward Question

Now that I no longer feel like writing something just for the sake of writing, let me just lay down a point I've been wanting to write about for a long time.

It always irked me when people asked if my training was tough. I would invariably be too proud to say yes, too forgetful to remember if there were any tough bits at all, but also too mindful of my mates behind me who would like me to say, "Yes, we follow the toughest training regimen of any unit in the SAF".

Truth be told, if I gave either answer (yes or no) I will never be sure if I was right. I've never been through the discipline that a Cadet gets. I was never pushed around as a Driver. I've hardly dug any scrapes or trenches, even though Infantrymen do it all the time. I have never been in charge of a tank, with all that sloughing the panzer through mud and maintenance the job calls for. And we sure as day cannot match up to those who utilise fully their imagination for Hell Week activities.
I've never been in anyone's boots but my own.

I do have memories of all that I've been through. However tough they were, they became good ones in the end, though they be still a little hard to divulge before downing a few pints.

And then I'll speak what I always liked, half-seriously.
"Army is fun. You should join the Army."

To this many of my friends would violently object. To them, the year 2008 was wildly phenomenal, they have done things that they have never dared to do; they broke new grounds, they conquered their own weaknesses and fears, they had it tough and lived to tell the tale. These are the people you should ask. They can tell you colourful sagas with ample furnishings, whereas I will just give you a boring understatement.

Or a distraction, perhaps. When you expect most to hear about physical and mental fatigue, I give you a description of that morning's birdsong. If I was really blanked out in the morning that I heard them, it is not important at all. It doesn't bother me, and it should never bother anyone else either. But the birds! Oh, how trivially they do squabble among the bushes.