Have you ever taken part in military training? Well, what do you think of it? Maybe you think it is strict, dull and tiring? So it is. But there is something more.
　　Should you come to have military training, you would surely have a feeling different from what you thought. The following is what I went through in the summer vacation.

The Bitterness
　　Every Morning we had to be called together at six o'clock and the new day began from our sleepy eyes, so you can imagine how early we had to get up and how quickly we had to finish washing. Therefore, there would be some funny things. In the first day, five students had dressed with back to the front, ten students wore bedclothes, and one girl, who forgot to wear her glasses, rushed so fast that she bumped1 the glass door heavily. Two girls who were late for ten minutes said to the training officer, “Sorry, sir. We were in the toilet.”
　　After the muster2, we had to take morning exercises, which involved walking, shouting slogans, standing and so on. Don't look down, because we had to march thousands of times and kept on standing still for twenty minutes. The hardest thing was to stand still. When we stood at attention3, we were asked not to move even a finger. And our eyes weren't allowed to blink4. Sometimes, it happened to rain, we could do nothing but ask ourselves: “Why do we have such bad luck?” And what is more, if it was hot, we could surely feel the sweat running down like raindrops. In this case, we would take exercises in the classroom. But another trouble came: mosquitoes5. They always came in teams, as Xu Zhimo said: “Quietly I went as calmly I came, I waved my sleeves, just left some 'swelling6'.” How poor! Seeing those mosquitoes dancing around us, we could only sigh and wish them to fly away.
　　Marching was not much better than standing still. Though there was much water on the playground, we were also asked to march in parade7 steps. For improvement, we always had to practise repeatedly ten or more times.
　　This kind of bitterness is what we had never tasted before, but after this experience, we weren't afraid of other difficulties in everyday life.

The Food
　　Fried chicken, fishes, meat, milk, ham...
　　How delicious! Just a minute, they were just illusion8. The real food in our bowls was: cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes and so on. It was so terrible that most of us didn't eat them.  We just closed our eyes, imagining our favorite food went away. At first we had to go without food. But some days later, we had been so hungry that we found all the vegetables were not so bad. I often heard the tell of the food: “Why are the cabbages so nice? They're different from home-made food.”

The Training Officers
　　To my surprise, the training officers were just two or three years older than we. Though they pretended to be more strict and serious, we weren't afraid of them at all. Some of us even played jokes on them. They played with us and just looked after us like brothers. They could even be shy once we asked them to sing a pop song. When we took a rest, the training officers often organized us to play games. They played with us and they taught us many martial9 songs. We always had a competition about singing songs between teams. The roof was even made to shake by our loud sounds. How lovable, aren't they? But when we were training, they would become very strict, so we called them “two-face-men.”
 
Summary
　　It was once said: “If you don't put yourself through the mill, you can't get success.” We paid sweat and tears but harvested a strong will and a healthy body. Thanks to the military training, we took on a new look now. Our military postures10 were measured and orderly. The military training gave us a chance to learn more, feel more and taste more. Many happy things are easily forgotten, but this thing will be kept in my memory for a long time.
　　It's worth it to have military training. You will change a lot because of it.
 

 

1. bump  v．碰(伤), 撞(破)
2． muster   n． 集合
3． stand at attention: 立正
4． blink   v．眨眼
5． mosquito  n． 蚊子
6． swelling  n． 肿胀，肿大
7． parade   n． 阅兵, 检阅
8． illusion   n． 幻想
9． martial   adj．战争的, 军事的
10． posture  n．(身体的)姿势, 体态