The Meaningless and the Meaningful
[May 12, 2022]
When I grow older and especially after my retirement, there
have been too much free time to kill.
All the hobbies I love are definitely enough to fill in the gap. However, there are always chances that I do
not feel like doing the same things over and over again no matter how much I
enjoy doing it.
So from time to time, I have dreamed up something new as a
refresher. Some are credible and others are
ridiculous. Whatever they are, even
though other think they are meaningless, quite frequently they are meaningful
in my standard.
This one belongs to one of those, no doubt.
I have a file of school documents I have been carrying to
Hong Kong numerous times for whatever reasons.
They are my high school diploma, letter of resignation from my last employment
in Hong Kong, my grade points during my last semester, the entrance examination
results to the University of Hong Kong and the University of London and the
award certificates, etc. They were
needed when I applied for my Chinese passport, the Hong Kong identification
card, visa to go to China, etc. The
documents not only showed my identity, also the time durations when I was in
Hong Kong or U.S. or other countries.
This time, when I decided to move from Maryland to Seattle to
be closer to my children, I did a rather thorough cleaning of all my
belonging. Not only getting rid the
useless paper, also made room for my new nest as I was going to move to a
smaller apartment. When I went through these
files, suddenly I realized that the file only contained my high school documents,
but not my college diploma.
What had happened to my college diploma? Had I ever seen my diploma? I was not sure. The question kept flopping in my mind. The more I tried to think about it, the more
I was uncertain. I could not even
picture how the diploma looked like.
Suddenly an idea appeared in my mind - “my daughter was also a Berkeley
graduate!” The might be one way to
settle my mind by checking her diploma if it might bring back my memory.
“I had never seen a copy like it. It looked so strange to me.” I convinced myself. Now I was 99.44% sure that during the years I
had been carrying my document file, there was not a document looked as her
graduation diploma.
I am 86 (or 89 depending on which stories I believe) years
old now. I had retired 22 years ago
after employed 38 years to three employers.
For sure I had fill out in the job applications that I was a 1964
Berkeley graduate. They never asked me
to show them the diploma as the proof.
As normal they would called up UC Berkeley to validate my claim. If they never called me to say I was a liar,
the fact had been validated. If I do not
have it now, I must have lost it or never have possession of it for whatever
reasons. The most logical answer is
that, after I finished the graduate celebration ceremony and after I threw my
cap into the air, I had never thought that I was supposed to go to the office
to pick up the diploma.
Now I gave myself the answer, then what? I will never need it for my career since my
career has ended. That piece of paper is
useless other than framing and hanging onto the wall. But I have over half a dozen Professional
Engineering Licenses issued by different States which are more important for my
Engineering career than the diploma. I
only hanged them in my office to impress my clients and vendors. After retirement, I have no reasons to hang
them in my office at home. Then why do I
care if I have the possession of my college diploma?
On the other hand, that is the piece of paper I fought so
hard for. Not only struggling so hard while
having the tiny amount of money to start the journey, also struggled so hard to
survive. Not only to pay for the room
and board also facing the Immigration Department, the Foreign Student Office,
the job hunting while I was not allowed to work, the ways to maintain the
spirit to live and study, the juggling of work and study schedules, the
language handicap and so many other factors to pull it off until I
graduated. Even it is just a piece of
paper, it is the paper I fought hard for; it is a piece of paper to prove that
I can achieve what I want; It is the proof of success or failure.
Suddenly the piece of paper increases the value in my mind
and it becomes the piece of paper I will find way to obtain. But how?
It has been 58 years since I graduated.
Can they still be able to find a piece of document 58 years old? Even the document still exists; will they be
willing to spend time to satisfy an old man just because he is so
sentimental? Will they bother?
Like what they say, you don’t know until you try. Never say never until you exhaust all the possibilities
and opportunities. With the research, I
found the possible right person (Vice Chancellor Katherine Yelick) to contact and
my letter was written and sent.
Will others laugh at me to do something so meaningless? Do I care if I feel it may be so meaningful?
Here is the letter. Hopefully
it will open a new project to keep me busier.
May 8, 2022
Office of Vice Chancellor Katherine Yelick,
119 California Hall,
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
Dear Vice Chancellor Yelick,
This may sound like a fairy
tale. Please bear with me. You will do me a great favor by finishing
reading this letter.
I am a Year 1964 graduate in Cal,
Berkeley, B.Sc. with major in Civil Engineering. It had been a dream came true that I had
reached my goal through an almost impossible journey.
This is to briefly recap my
situations from the beginning. After my
high school graduation following by a clerk-typist job working in the Labor
Department in Hong Kong, I had decided that in order to have a better future, I
had to be further educated. Because of
my family financial situation, my parents had negated my request to go to
college outside of Hong Kong. But that
did not make me change my mind. I had
decided that I would proceed going to a college without burdening their
financial situation.
Since I had done well in Chinese high
school, I was accepted by San Francisco State College, the University of San
Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley. After selected Cal. Berkeley as my preference,
I had begun my detailed plan to fulfill my wish.
After working two and half jobs to
save $1,000 U.S. dollars, I said goodbye to my parents and began my adventurous
journey. With $330 to purchase the
cheapest ticket from President Cleveland Lines, $70 to buy the absolute
necessities, I had the remaining $600 in my pocket when I left Hong Kong.
Even though I did not speak the English language well, did not know a
single person in the U.S., I sailed and landed in the place I was not familiar
with, San Francisco. With knowing that
as soon as the school would start, I would have to pay $400 for the
tuition. The remaining $200 would be my
started fortune to pay for room and board, books and stationary,
transportation, clothing, entertainment and even dating girls. Difficult, yes, impossible, no!
That was how I started. After four
years of struggle, I managed to get what I came for, my college degree. At the day of graduation, I was so excited. Even I had confidence when I started I still
could not believe that I managed to pull it through. After the graduation ceremony, and after I
threw my graduation cap to the air, I was so thrilled yet exhausted. My mind was happy but blank with the great
satisfaction that I had reached my impossible goal. I WAS SO EXCITED THAT I DID NOT EVEN REMEMBER
THAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE OFFICE TO PICK UP MY DIPLOMA.
I am 89 years old now and live in a retirement community. I had retired
over twenty years ago. I had gone
through my life with a successful career in Civil Engineering and Computer
Science, but I had never thought of that I did not ever have the possession of
my own diploma, the paper I had fought so hard for. While cleaning up my documents during the
latest move recently to be closer to my children, I suddenly realized that I
had never seen my own diploma. Since my
daughter was also a Cal, Berkeley graduate, I asked her to show me her
diploma. After checking it as it looked
so strange to me, I was so sure and concluded that I had never seen my Berkeley
graduation document.
Why I am doing this? Is it so
important to me now? Is it so important
for an 89 years person, an over twenty year retiree to have the diploma that it
will be useless for the remaining of my career?
I don’t know. Maybe I am too
sentimental. Maybe I am still looking
for the satisfaction of the several years of struggling doing my impossible
task.
On the other hand, is it possible for you to find my diploma after 58
years since I graduated? Still, this is
my wish. I will accept that it is an
impossible task. Would that be a miracle
that my senseless wish comes true? I
will be more than just satisfied to have the diploma or even a Xerox copy only
to fulfill my mind.
First I would give my sincere thanks that you have read the entire letter. I will be delighted for any answer you may
give me.
Happy Mother’s Day and God bless all
of us.
Andrew Yeesing Fok
22975 SE Black Nugget Road, Apt 313,
Issaquah, WA 98029
Cell phone: (206)-992-3838
End of first enquiry.
Less than a week later, I received
the reply from the Executive Assistant on behalf of the Vice Chancellor.
diploma
from UC BerkeleyJM
Joel Moldenhauer joelmold@berke
To Fok@msn.com
Fri
5/13/2022 12:48 PM
Dr. Mr. Fok,
Vice Chancellor Kathy Yelick
received your letter dated May 8 and asked me to respond on her behalf. I hope
this email finds you well. I was fascinated with your story, and I hope we're
able to help you obtain a copy of your diploma.
I contacted our University
Registrar office, which is ultimately responsible for this, and the next step
is for you to complete the form linked here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfXoxh3eTzRX6XblJuBfhouCG3Iw_lp8DRvjwVu_WATGXEKrg/viewform
They will use the information
you provide to verify records. Once that is done it sounds like you will be
asked to pay a fee of $60, then you will be sent a copy.
From what I understand this
process can take up to two months. If this is too long, or if you have any
questions, please contact diplomas@berkeley.edu.
If you have any other questions
or if there is anything else I can help with please don't hesitate to
contact me.
Best wishes,
Joel
Joel Moldenhauer
Senior Executive Assistant
Vice Chancellor for Research
Office
University of California,
Berkeley
Cell: 510-295-5562
What they requested from the reply
was expected but not what I hoped for.
When I requested the diploma, it was not really that I was so anxious
about having the document. Why do I ask
for it? What am I using that for? For sure even if I have the original, will I
frame it and hang it on the wall? No! I do not even hang the Professional Engineering
Licenses which are even more valuable for my job than the college diploma. Then why would I hang the Berkeley diploma
even if I have it?
Believe or not, I ran through this
exercise just to satisfy my own mind for something I believe I am entitled to
and nothing else. It impressed me that
they did not do that just for formality; they guided me how to obtain my copy, except
they charged a fee for it. I thought
that too before I sent out the letter, but I was hoping that I might get a
pleasant surprise. In a way, it is
logical that all services are expected to be compensated. Still, in a way, I am entitled to have my
document free of charge except I am 58 years too late. For sure that I don’t plan to spend money
just for a moment of satisfaction.
Now since I opened the can of worms,
I had to find some ways to withdraw gracefully.
I cannot drop it just like dropping a hot potato; I do owe him/her a
logical reason before I can call it quits.
So that is my reply.
May 14, 2022
Dear Joel,
Thanks for your speedy reply of my letter to Vice Chancellor Kathy
Yelick, even though the answer is not what I hoped for. It is really a little silly on my part that I
would pursue a long lost diploma after 58 years. At my twilight age, why would/should I ask
for a piece of paper which is useless to my career? I guess for sentimental reasons I just want
to have the satisfaction to touch what I had fought for so long ago.
I was hoping that I might have a FREE copy of the diploma, even though it
might be just a Xerox copy to fulfill my dream.
Since I am living on social security, it would be unwise to spend $60
for just a moment of satisfaction. Come
to think of it, even if I have the diploma, I doubt that I might frame it and
hang up on the wall. I might just file
it with the rest of the education documents such as my high school diploma and
other award documents.
I guess I should have thought of it.
I should not expect others to spend time to find a 58-years old paper
without paying for their services.
Accepting this, I believe that I would drop the whole idea and just hold
on to my dream that I did graduate in Berkeley 58 years ago. I will almost be as content as holding the
original diploma in my hand. Please
accept my apology for the oversight.
Thanks for you spending time to take care my silly letter, and please
thank Vice Chancellor Yelick for her time to read my letter.
Please consider this subject closed and give my regards to all of you.
Yours truly,
Andrew Yeesing Fok
afok@msn.com
How embarrassing! A day after I sent the eMail to Joel and
asked him to close the subject since I had no plan to spend any amount of money
to buy a brief moment of satisfaction, I, like what I said “how embarrassing”, I
found the original of the diploma in my possession all the time!
Not trying to look for excuses,
in my mind, I have never ever remembered I have seen my diploma. Especially I have been carrying the high
school documents to Hong Kong to apply the Hong Kong and China documents there
was no reason not to include the college diploma. Not only that it might be useful, also I had
chances to show off my college document especially it was from one of the top 10
Universities in the United States.
This time because I was looking
for other paper, I happened to run into the file containing my Professional
Engineering licenses. Again in my memory
[it must be not as good as I think], I don’t believe I hanged my college
diploma in my office at work, I only hanged all the P.E. licenses as a way to
show I was valuable and experienced for my job.
Since I found the diploma in the same file containing the P.E. licenses I
must have hung the diploma as well. Even
I still refuse to admit my memory is failing it must be not as well as what I
would admit. How depressing! How sad!
As soon as I saw the diploma, I
was shocked and immediately put it back to the file. I could have ignored the whole thing without
telling anyone one, including Joel and the Vice Chancellor and others since I
have told them to close the whole issue.
So I could bury the whole event without admitting that I screwed
up. But it takes a great man to admit
his error, as what they all say, I cannot push myself to bury my mistake. I had to tell them the whole story even
though it was embarrassing.
So I wrote the eMail almost immediately.
On
Tue, May 17, 2022 at 6:19 PM Andrew Fok <AFOK@msn.com>
wrote:
Dear
Joel,
This is the most embarrassing
eMail I have written for as long as I remember. I wrote you
the reply yesterday to ask you to drop the subject of pursuing my diploma. Surprisingly, it showed up when I least
expected.
I just
currently moved into a retirement community. Last week, I
finally managed to unpack all the boxes. I have over
half a dozen of the Professional Engineering licenses from different States. When I unpack the P.E. licenses, I found my
Berkeley diploma mixed with them.
Please accept my sincere
apology for my oversight and have wasted yours and Vice Chancellor Yelick’s
time on my behalf. I really thank you two that
you cared for helping me to locate the document.
It is a happy ending for me. Thanks again
and hope you two have a nice summer.
Andrew
Within hours, I received the
reply from Joel. I was delighted to find
out that they were friendly and cared.
Re:
diploma from UC Berkeley
<joelmold@berkeley.edu>
To:
·
You
Tue 5/17/2022 9:41 PM
Dear Mr. Fok,
This is the most wonderful outcome! It makes
me extremely happy that you found your original diploma. When I checked, the
Registrar’s office did not have your original any longer (I don’t know how long
they keep them), so they would have been producing a copy which was the reason
for the fee. I was checking if they could produce one without the fee. Happily,
that is no longer necessary. If you ever need anything else from Berkeley
please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes for your retirement!
Joel
End of the entire drama, from a convincing letter to nothing but a happy ending. I was very pleased how cooperating and friendly they were. It made me proud to be one of them.
[May 18, 2022]
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