Out with the Old

On Sunday, after dinner at my parents, Ryan went out on the boat with Adam, my dad and Wade. My mom had been hinting/flat-out telling me that at some point in the very near future, she wanted me to clean out my old bedroom. I decided, today was the day. It was a lot less painful than I thought since I'd already taken all my old dresses (except for my wedding dress) and had done some purging during college. Still, it was pretty sad that my room was decorated almost exactly as I had left it when I graduated from High School 12 years ago.

Here's a few highlights of what was still displayed:

• Many of my Academic certificates, including: State of Iowa Scholar, National Merit Finalist, Best of the Class, All-Academic Team, Student of the Year (which Adam won the next year), etc. We could basically call it the "Wall of Geek."
• All of the flower corsages I ever wore along with the tiara from being Prom Queen (which is missing a few rhinestones).
• A bulletin board with the B-H "letters" I earned, a few State Fair ribbons, Presidential Physical Fitness Patches (which they stopped giving out in 6th grade), and my nametags from working at ValleyFair
• A shelf containing my exactly 4 trophies--3 of them were earned for a run of "Superior" ratings in piano solos and one was for 6th grade Math Bee. (Was I not worried the certificates would solidify my geek status?)
• Show Choir pictures from my Junior and Senior Year, including a frame they gave me my senior year listing our 1st place finishes in 1998,1999, and 2000 (the years I choreographed)
• Pictures with my senior class and lots of "Class of 2000" picture frames (the frames went right in the garbage).
• My graduation cap and display of my graduation invitations in a beautiful royal blue and dark green color combo (better than the purple/orange combo Adam's class chose).

Besides taking down all the decor, I also had several drawers and boxes to go through, including scrapbooks, a 4-H Record Book, newspaper clippings, and old letters.  A lot went into the dumpster, and I limited myself to taking home 2 totes plus my wedding dress.

I feel bad that my mom is now left with a splatter-painted purple and teal room (I painted it in 6th grade) with tons of nail-holes, but at least there are a few less senior pictures and a lot less dried flowers!