This is a little old – from 9 months ago, but here it is:
This is it. I’m finally free. A few days ago I handed in my military ID was given my discharge certificate and a reservist ID. So I’m not entirely free, not for the next 15 years, but more freedom is better than less.
On the way to the bakum on that fateful Tuesday I was surprised yet again at how low bureaucracy can stoop. I got on a bus and presented the driver with my ID and a card saying that on that day I was allowed to use public transportation for free, while still wearing civilian clothing. He told me to turn it around and I saw that trains and Dan buses (city buses for the Tel Aviv area) were excluded. Somebody please explain to me how I was supposed to get to the bakum without Dan buses. No appreciation – the State does anything to save a buck – and by that point I couldn’t do anything about it, and I just wanted to be done with the whole thing already.
The driver was nice enough to let me ride for free anyway.
Freedom, by the way, isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. But it’s still good to be free. I would, and will do it again – getting those brown envelopes with the triangles on them in the mail gives you an odd sensation that is a mix of duty and doom that you just don’t get from anything else.