An old saying goes that you don’t become an Aggie, that it is something you are from birth. Your mindset is supposed to be more attuned to accepting the “Aggie way of thinking”, you hold some opinions that are adamantine, and that won’t change for anything.
I don’t know about any of that. Coming from a foreign country at a young age I had no idea what an Aggie was. College was in fact a non issue to a then 7-year-old kid recently arrived from Colombia.
It was December of ’77 and my family and I were spending our first Winter and our first Christmas in Houston. My mother discovered Foley’s, the local big name in clothes and housewares, in what was then the posh Sharpstown Mall. She needed warm sweatshirts for her son and she picked an orange one with a cow skull and a maroon one with a block ATM on it. The choice was left up to me as to which I would prefer and I gravitated towards the maroon sweatshirt.
Now, was this an example of fate making itself manifest through a simple choice in outerwear? Did this simple choice unconsciously predispose me to one school rather than the other? Or did the maroon jersey just feel more comfy?
I would like to point out that in between that Christmas and my application to A&M about a decade passed. I had in fact applied to a variety of schools besides A&M including that other school up in Austin. I had been accepted to that school as well as a couple of others but in the end A&M represented the best choice as far as engineering schools, which I intended to study at that time.
When I arrived in College Station my plan was to get on with my studies and not pay attention to any of the distractions of college life. But being in a small town and around such a dedicated community of zealots, the camaraderie and esprit d corps became contagious.
Some telling incidents occurred that first semester. On a trip back home at a local grocery store an old gent approached me. I was wearing school colors and he became visibly animated and shook my hand vigorously. He had lost his ability to speak but the grin on his face spoke volumes. He was just glad to meet another Aggie.
Another time I was working on the yearly bonfire. It was around midnight and I was sitting by a small campfire resting. An older student came by and sat with me and we started talking and talking for at least a couple of hours. He shared a flask of something ‘non-regulation’ and a cigar. Eventually he wandered off into the darkness. Never did find out his name.
I began to develop a sense of community and belonging.
Now, I am not as fanatically devoted as many of my fellow former students when it comes to school ties. I’ve known former students that won’t speak to friends and co-workers due to differences on the football field. I remember during my freshman Spring Semester at school seeing an ad for a lecture for graduating seniors entitled “Can a t-sip (student from that school in Austin) be a friend”. I rolled my eyes and wondered if they were being serious. I would learn later on that in some ways they were being serious. Happily that mindset was and never has been present within me.
But I do have to admit that I was one of those dumb Aggies that people make jokes about.
Just for the record, the first thing that they teach you at A&M IS how to write. My first course was ENDG 105 engineering drafting and design. I got one of those big pouches that they issue to architecture students. A pouch full of rulers, pencils, erasers, and other odds and ends. They then taught me how to write everything in block letters for blueprints and maps. A habit that shows up from time to time in my handwriting.
I am one of those Aggies that stands steadfast by his convictions, feelings, and friends.
One of the things I cherish is the way that we don’t sway with the winds of change just for the sake of change. We stand firm when it might not be the most popular or expedient way of doing things. We will always greet and feel a familial feeling for any and all Aggies no matter when or where we meet them
I will always be one of those Aggies that wears his oversized school ring everywhere.
That will wear maroon in a room full of orange, and that despite all the evidence to the contrary still believes that he went to the finest school anywhere.
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