With the upcoming entries, I can see the eagerness amongst the candidates, with which they are waiting for the written exams and hoping to get a call for the SSB, to finally turn their dream of becoming an officer into reality. I am sure, for those of you, who want to join the Armed Forces, from the core of your heart, this must be much more than a career. I have listed a few points below which I feel set Armed Forces apart, from being just a career option for you:
- You get all nostalgic: I know nostalgia isn’t the correct word to use here, but it’s difficult to define that feeling in any other word. I am talking about that feeling which you get when you see the picture of Passing Out Parades, candidates marching towards the ‘antim pag’, and stars being pinned on the shoulders. You feel a twitch in your stomach and you want to see yourself there.
- When you day dreams are longer than night dreams: You start imagining yourself as an officer as soon as you get SSB call letter. You begin to visualize how it would feel to go in the SSB, to hear your name in the recommended list and to finally go to the academy. You talk to your friends who are in academy and learn about their lifestyle, you read up on the internet about the training and what all happens there. Not only fancy, but you also work hard to realize your dreams.
- Rejections are harder: You never feel as bad when you get rejected from any other job interview, as you feel when you get rejected from here. You feel broken, and it feels like no other rejection would hurt as much as this does. You feel like going back and preparing in a better way, so that you never had to face the rejection in the first place.
- Still it makes you stronger: Yet even after the rejection, you never give up. You want to try again, and nothing can stop you. You may take up some other career option, still you wait for your SSB eagerly, and patiently prepare for it. As I say, “kya karein pyaar he bada hota hai fauj se!”It’s like the never say die attitude was meant to define you. Keep going, as you must have heard, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
- It comes above all: I have friends who gave up on a lot of stuff just because they wanted to get into the Forces. Some gave up excellent job offers in foreign while some gave up their easy and comfortable life. A friend of mine, humorously puts that he wanted to get into defence, and his girlfriend asked him to choose between him and defence, so I asked him then what did you do, and he said, ‘I haven’t seen her after that’. Now he is an Army officer. So kuch bhi keh lo, pehla pyaar to fauj hi hota hai apna!
