New frames!

I had a bit of a fun day today. First off, I made a new friend. His name is Larry Maroon, and he’s from Madera. He plans to be an elementary school teacher one day, but his grades have not been living to expectations. I advised him to work hard to keep those grades up if he wants to fulfill his dream of teaching kids like him. I have no doubt he will reach that goal, but like many roads, it won’t be easy. I believe in him, and he believes in himself.

Then, after my mom and dad and sister came back from the Costco store in Signal Hill (which has this wonderful park on the top of the hill where you can see Los Angeles and Catalina Island on a clear day, and of course, all of Long Beach any day), me and my mom set off to find frames for my Long Beach City College diplomas I received. I originally wanted to go to this store that my friend and companion in student government at Long Beach City College, Mary Bunting, told me. It’s called Shades of Africa, and it’s a fancy store in downtown Long Beach that has wonderful frames. The problem was, it was out of our price range. So instead, we set off for this thrift store at the corner of Carson Street and Orange Avenue, in the California Heights area, which is next to Bixby Knolls. We stumbled upon a couple of cheap frames. One was only 99 cents, and the other one, which was made of wood, was $4.99. Both were of very good quality, though. We bought them on the spot.

Next, we had to find some nails to hang the two frames. At the Target in Signal Hill, we found this $4.99 kitchen set. This had everything: thumbtacks, nails, hangers to hang pictures…literally everything that you need to make the office spiffy. The goal today was to make my bedroom look like a bit of an office. So we bought the kitchen set.

When we got home, I and mom prepared the frames. The smaller one was easy; all I did was place one of the diplomas on there, and it was hung. The larger one took more work, but this would have a lot of things inside it. First off, we had to remove the seal, which was made of staples. We bent the over, to open the frame. And then we placed a lot of stuff in it. I placed these items.

A diploma

A crest badge for my fraternity, Tong.

Two photographs of me in my cap and gown.

A tassel

A gold Alpha Gamma Sigma honor stole (which I really treasure, as a symbol of my academic success)

Seven pins, representing:
Associated Men’s Students Silver Key
Viking Volunteers Hall of Fame
LBCC Associate Student Body Cabinet
LBCC Viking Award
Thane (LBCC Honorary Men Society)
Alpha Gamma Sigma Silver Pin (associate member)
Alpha Gamma Sigma Gold Pin (permanent member)

A small red LBCC pennant

My retired LBCC College Service Card (student ID)

My ASB Cabinet name tag (the position I had was ASB Secretary)

Everything was carefully taped together, and I nailed it onto my wall. I placed a couple of screws at the bottom to support it, but I don’t think it was needed as much. Also, adorning the frame to the right was a bigger Long Beach City College pennant, with a little LBCC badge on it. That exhibit itself was a microcosm of three years of hard work,

I moved some of my other plaques I received, nailed some more pendants and leis onto the wall to hang, and even added my high school diploma from Lakewood onto my wall. Now it looks a bit cleaner, though my dad complains there are too many holes in the wall now. Nothing a little plaster can’t fix, right? I will post photos of my room on BoBA and BoMB, as well on Day in the Life threads at SeiyaUsagi.net and Imperial Academy Forum (http://sdc.kefi.org), when I can get my hands on my sister’s digital camera.