As someone who faces adversity as regularly as you might switch on your television set, civil defence officer Noor Azam still comes across as a down-to-earth, unpretentious bloke with his head screwed on the right way.
Make the best of any situation you’re thrown into – is the mantra he lives by. “While on duty, we come across sights - like accident victims - that can be shocking to ordinary people, which were initially quite unnerving even to me,” he admits. “But you have to condition your mind to handle the trauma. Your mind is your greatest asset, but it can also become your greatest enemy.” As a leader of many servicemen – some youths too – Noor Azam has to put on a stoic front and focus on the job at hand. “You have to be strong when you lead, or else the team’s morale will be directly affected.”
Noor Azam’s resilient streak was nurtured at a young age as he grew up in a family with little comforts. “I never complained about my lifestyle and made sure I worked hard for anything I wanted,” he says. At 16, he started a job while still studying at a polytechnic because he didn’t want to saddle his mother with yet another mouth to feed.
Diagnosed with a heart murmur in primary school, he was never physically active during his youth. However, when he enlisted into the Singapore Civil Defence Force, he discovered, oddly enough, a predisposition for fitness. Since then, he has even managed to achieve a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science even though he never excelled in school in the past. “If you really want something, you’ll have to work and work for it,” he says. “The harder you work for it, the higher will be your chances of getting it.”
advertisement
