No, it’s not a misspelling. I’m titling this entry ‘Freedoom’ because with unexpected freedom comes a certain doom. It’s been a few days since we ORD’ed, a week and a day for me, and other than the frequent trips to the airport to bid farewell to friends who are leaving for Australia, I reckon most of us haven’t done anything productive for the past couple of days. While a lot have tried to apply for contractual jobs to fully utilize these six months till university, little find immediate success in the already shrinking job market due to the worldwide economic recession.

I guess we can only blame it on bad luck that the economy had to collapse just before we ORD. In NS, we had job security and certain allowances (though meager) that ensured an iron “rice bowl”, but what we craved for was freedom. However upon ORD’ing, we find it hard to secure employment in the current adverse market conditions. Many positions required prior working experience, which most of us do not possess having just left NS. So, it isn’t that easy surviving the competition, and having being shielded from actual reality of working outside for a considerable period of time, that just makes matters a lot worse.

And then, there are people like me. We’re not seeking jobs for the moment because we want to make use this time to pursue life’s simple pleasures that we hadn’t had time to engage in while in service. So, unlike the first group, whom are bound to be able to find some kind of employment in the coming months, we fall into a category of being voluntarily unemployed. Therefore, during our period of unemployment, we are entirely dependent on our NS savings (if any!) or our parents for daily expenditures. Of course, none of us wants to be parasites, but to do that, it would have required some prior planning of finances.

But whether you belonged to the first or second group, you would have no doubt experienced some form of mental decomposition because there will be times when you simply can’t find anything meaningful to do. I’m not ashamed to say that I’m currently hovering around the first stage. Perhaps I haven’t learn to appreciate the freedom that comes with ORD’ing because I guess I’m still too used to the regimental lifestyle in NS. Nonetheless, we cannot let this newfound freedom overwhelm us because doing so only spells a doom associated with psychological deterioration. Embrace and be thankful, then we can overcome.