He was a 14 year old schoolboy. Once the school director went to his class and announced that health certificates were needed for the military draft. The school director said that all the boys will go to the local clinic for this medical check.

The boy knew something about this procedure. For example, “all boys were naked standing in the queue and some doctors walked alongside and checked their bodies by hand.” That was terrifying for him, because he’d never been naked with other people, especially unknown people. He was afraid of the shame more than going to the army later.

He went home and asked his parents how to avoid this procedure, but they said it’s impossible and every boy does that. He felt so insecure that even his parents couldn’t help him. He started complaining “Why do I have to go in the army? Just because I’m healthy?” But he didn’t speak about his fears.

He went alone to the clinic. There were already about 40 boys like him with confused faces. Some of them waited to be healthy for the army service, some didn’t, nobody spoke about being naked. At first, they went to the huge room where they checked boys’ height and weight. It was cold and the boy hoped that they will not force them to get naked. Yes, the low temperature saved him!

The boys were ushered to go one by one into different rooms to have their bones, legs, eyes, and other parts of the body checked. Even though there was no need to be naked, the two hours were filled with fear that “this time will come soon.” When the procedure was finished, the main doctor marked the word ‘useful’ under the boy’s name on the paper.