BLOG #11

BLOG #11

LIFE AT AKADEMI LAUT MALAYSIA

(Part 1)

I always wonder how it feels like to stay in a boarding school. When I was in the Philippines before during my university days, I wanted to stay on an apartment by myself and live independently but my guardians didn’t allow me.  Studying in Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM) seems like the answers to some of my “how's”.

October 2017, I set foot on this academy. We were not briefed how things will go here; the only thing the office told us was we will just study here and everything will be provided. They didn’t tell us about the semi-regimentation system.

I consider junior days as hell days. I am referring to whole semester 1 and earlier part of semester 2. Morning physical training at 6am, evening physical training at 5pm, and nothing beats the punishment at night in the form of exercise from 10pm until midnight.

My batch, DNS 24 and DME 38, didn’t have a good relationship at the beginning due to some of us tends to create trouble which leads to intense punishment at night. I am talking about coming to assembly late, no shave, dirty uniforms, using short cuts, and most of all cabin not well-organized. Discipline, the regimentation system is implementing such culture on us to make it our attitude.

Every time I come to think of this, I can’t help but smile. When I see the parade square, even though we come across it every single day, I can’t help it to feel nostalgic. Remembering the amount of sweat dropped on that stony ground, how many harsh curse words came out from our mouth, and how much fun we were having when we  already got used to all of those punishments like it is just a piece of cake. I kind of miss those days but I definitely don’t want to repeat it, never. Not a chance.