John Kang was at a crossroads. There was road one: Stay at Northwestern, where he was directionless and disinterested. Then there was road two: the Korean military.

Road two would take two years away from his life at Northwestern. Road two meant goodbye to his friends. Road two would be unlike anything he had ever done before.

Nonetheless, after his sophomore year, Kang stood at Nonsan, the Korean pre-deployment army base to say goodbye to his family and begin his mandatory service to the Korean military as part of the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KATUSA), which translates between the Korean and U.S armies.

“It was a chance to reinvent myself and to re-explore what I am capable of and use the two years ahead of me wisely to accomplish that goal,” Kang, 23, said. “I’m going to say goodbye to whatever procrastinating, lazy person I was.”

According to the CIA World Fact Book, conscription currently exists in 57 countries but is not enforced in all. Besides South Koreans, conscription also affects Singaporeans and Israelis, among others.

Most undergraduates only have to say one big goodbye. One defining moment in front of their parents’ car freshman year when they leave behind home-cooked meals, early curfews and free laundry.

But for these international students, their undergraduate experience has two goodbyes and two awkward introductions. South Korean men leave home, adjust to U.S. college culture, and then say goodbye again to complete their service, readjust to Korea and then readjust again when they return to school. Singaporean men leave home, go to the military and then travel across the world to study.

Despite this, Singaporeans and South Koreans alike often go back to school with a sense of purpose and a worldview widened outside the insular bubble of university life.

By law, all Singaporean males must serve two years in the military before attending college. Every South Korean male also must do national service either during his undergraduate studies or after he graduates. In South Korea that means all male peers are the same age when they enter college, but for international students it can often be a huge disruption in both men’s academic and personal lives.

The process for withdrawing and re-entering the university is usually a fairly seamless process according to Michele Neary, Northwestern’s associate university registrar. First the student speaks with the dean from their school, explains the situation and fills out a cancellation/withdraw policy form that the dean sends to the registrar’s office. Once the form has been processed, the student’s registration is held and their CAESAR account frozen. When they return, they fill out a Former Student to Re-Enter (FRET) form with their dean. Then the registrar activates the student account, which allows them to enroll in classes. However, they do not register with the class they entered school. Students must register according to how many quarters they have spent on campus.

Kang, a political science and engineering major, is currently a Junior, but he will be graduating with the current sophomores. Jee Suk is in a similar situation. Suk is a mild-mannered man with black frame glasses and is almost perpetually dressed in business attire, today in his Foster-Walker dorm room in an untucked red oxford shirt and casual black slacks. Suk is 25 and will be graduating this year after taking a year off to pursue a business opportunity and two years in the Korean Air Force. After an internship as an analyst, Suk is ready to get out of academia and into the work force.

“I am the oldest of the Koreans right now,” Suk said. “It feels like I should work, but I’m still a student. After I experienced the internship I hate to be a student. I don’t want to be here anymore, but I still have to graduate.”

When senior Alvin Tan came to Northwestern after serving in the Singaporean army he felt behind. Two years of thinking about military strategies and 4 a.m. training sessions instead of logarithms and derivatives didn’t help Tan when it came to facing his Calculus homework.

“When I took the course in Calculus I had forgotten how to do basic differentiation. I had forgotten everything,” Alvin said. “It’s another huge barrier to overcome because you feel like you missed out on those two years. Even now I find myself having to catch up on things.”

This comes from a guy who apologizes for being on time for an interview.

At the same time, Kang, Suk, Tan and other Singaporeans and Koreans agree that military service gives you the skills and the mindset to overcome those challenges. Though conscription is the reason they feel behind, it also gives them the patience, confidence and focus to stay on top of schoolwork. For that reason, students say their GPAs actually go up when they return.

“When you are in the military service it looks as if everything else around you is moving light years ahead of you while you are stuck in the military service,” Suk said. “That’s a really scary feeling so when you come out you try to work harder and catch up with other people.”

For Suk, a political science major, that meant dropping one class. After not speaking or practicing English for three years, he needed more time to study and develop his writing skills.

XinKai Cheng, a junior Singaporean graduating this year agrees. If he lived in Singapore, at least he would the same age as the other guys. As a 23-year-old international student he is older and he feels behind everyone else.

“I think the idea that we are two years behind our female peers adds a drive for everyone to even the playing field. It makes us more driven in our studies or how we prioritize life.”

While academic lives quickly recover and excel, students’ personal lives are harder to mend. Any relationship romantic or otherwise is hard to sustain cross-continent or without phone service. According to Suk, many Korean couples break up before or during the military service period, Suk said.

“You can’t contact [your girlfriend], you can’t meet her and for people who are 20 years old that is a huge deal,” Suk said. “I rarely see a couple that continue after military service. I only saw one couple actually.”

Though he knew of the inevitable difficulties, Suk and his girlfriend at the time decided to keep seeing each other. Suk brought headphones, which were banned, so he could talk to her everyday. But they still fought a lot, he said.

“There is an imbalance of power,” Suk said. “Because I am in the military I always have to say, “I’m sorry.” My ex-girlfriend would always say, “It’s your fault.” And I have to say, “That’s true.” And that balance did not recover even after I came back from military, because that is how we got started.”

Any mention of mandatory military service in the United States hits a nerve. Patriotism is important, but so is personal freedom. The cultures are varied and different in conscription countries, but feelings of bitterness and resentment towards the government aren’t uncommon.

For sophomore Kenny Yeo, 21, conscription embittered him to the whole experience.

“I did not like it at all. I kind of feel like Singapore is different than other countries that have conscription, like Israel or Korea, because I fully believe that its not necessary in Singapore. So throughout the whole process I was kind of bitter.”

Singapore is a small country, only 697 square kilometers, and having a small standing reserve is not necessary, Yeo says. “Singapore is so diplomatic, I just don’t see why anyone would want to attack us.”

The same diplomatic sense could also be said of Yeo. He laughs and smiles a lot during his interview and quickly adds that in retrospect, the military taught discipline, patience and other life skills, but those are still two years he is never getting back, Yeo says.

Tan and Cheng feel differently.

“After you finish an experience like that you just don’t see the w
orld through the same lens anymore,” Tan says. “It teaches you to be more independent in very profound ways. I’m not sure if I can adequately describe it.”

“We commonly agree that we have a different set of thinking. I would not just say because of military per se, it is also because we are older,” Cheng says. “My personal view is that at the age of freshmen, most people are still finding their identity or social confirmation. We are past that stage. I’m not that susceptible to pressures that normal freshman would feel.”

Kang is all confidence as he recounts the story of his service. No ums, pauses or stumbling, he seamlessly recounts the whole thing from beginning to end, or he would have if there was time. Listening to him, it sounds as if he has been going over it in his head over and over. For Kang, military service focused him, helped him decide a major, motivated him to get better grades and strengthened his faith. For Kang, this was a life-changing experience and he’ll take any opportunity to share his story.

Though it might sound cliche, Kang sincerely believes that the army taught him the vale of perseverance. “There is nothing that is impossible. Anything is possible. It’s just about how much effort you put into it, how much you are willing to go and how much you are willing to believe.”