I was in the N.S. Reserve Unit. We practised for weeks. On the day itself, my officer ordered me to leave the contingent and instead of marching I had to be stationed at a strategic corner for surveillance duty. I did not see anything but heard the loud cheers. I was proud that I played a part in keeping the parade safe for everyone. (Collected from National Day Dinners held across the island to celebrate Singapore’s birthday in the month of August 2012.) Photograph of “Telok Blangah celebrates Singapore’s 47th National Day Dinner” taken on 4 Aug 2012 by Choo Yut Shing / chooyutshing from http://www.flickr.com/photos/25802865@N08/7721804736/ used under a Creative Commons – Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en