"Only 2 contracts are offered. Only Kelvin and you will be getting it. The rest might be offered the contract only if one of you reject the offer."

When these words hit me, I was lost for words. There had been speculations about there being only 2 positions to fill in the unit but none of us wanted to be too sure about it, we were all hoping that there will be 6. That way all of us would be able to stay together, working together like how we had been for the past 1 year.

However, it was not to be. Turns out the speculations evolved itself to become truth, and the truth is right here in our face. In a way, this is good news for me. It means I secured a contract, a job for the next 6 months. But somehow, the news also stung my heart. Amidst all the flavours of emotions, there was this tinge of sadness, this taste of forlorn.

Lets not say all 6, but the 3 of us in the platoon, we have always been working so closely together. We have been fighting, hoping, trying for this contract. We decided together that we will take on the 6 months as regulars together. We discussed about it at night, over lunch, when we were working. We were ready for it, another 6 months, no problem! And when the decision is finally made that we will go for it, only 1 of us got it?

Besides, I am not even the best in the platoon. My fitness is so off-standard, I am always so lack lustre about my work, always making mistakes. The rest are so much better than I am, reminding me about things, helping to cover for me. The only reason I could think of that put me on the list is the video project.

"So if I don't take up the contract, could I give it to another person?" "No, we have chosen the specific person to take up the particular the project that we will be assigning. Another person might not get the contract even if you don't take it up."

Thats how it is I guess. Even in the working world. Things just won't always go the way we want it. We just have to pick up whatever we got and move on. I applied for the contract today.

In another 39 days, I will be bidding my dear friends goodbye from the army. I will be looking at them holding their pink ICs, waving at me. I will hear news of what jobs they got in the civilian world, and how relax their lives are. And I will be reminded of the fact that I could join them in the rite of ORD, if I had not taken up the offer. I could only do the same in another 6 months. Well, thats the price to pay, I guess.