September 2021
My husband and I after the Texas A&M vs. LSU game – November 2018.
I know from experience that jumping headfirst into the cult that is Texas A&M University can be intimidating and, at times, frightening. Being hard of hearing, I barely understood most of the strange phrases that were yelled at me, and what little I did understand did not bring me much more clarity to the whole escapade. Fighting farmers? Old Army? I never got officially indoctrinated into the Aggie traditions the way most undergraduate freshman did through Fish Camp. This left me feeling a little manic during my first few weeks of classes, student organizations, and football games.
I know what it feels like to come to A&M unwitting to the screaming, hooting, and hollering that awaits. Therefore, I want to welcome any graduate students who are new to the university. I hope you are doing well in your classes, settling into College Station easily, and not feeling too overwhelmed yet. However, if you are feeling stressed by the intensity of Texas A&M, everything is going to be alright. Once you are as crazy as the rest of us, you will hardly notice it anymore.
With that, I would like to share a story, partially to reinforce my previous point, but mainly to transition into the overarching theme of this post.
I have been married for a little over a year. I fully understand what a die-hard Aggie my husband is, but that was not always the case. When I first started dating my husband, I was a mild Aggie. I enjoyed the football games; I had learned most of the words to most of the yells; and I could at least hum the Aggie War Hymn. Our first date was the typical dinner and bowling outing, and our second date was the not-so-typical bludgeon each other during basketball at the PEAP. Our third date, however, introduced a new beast to our relationship: the infamous seven-overtime, five-hour long Texas A&M versus LSU slugfest of 2018.
It started as any regular football game does, so throughout the first part of the game, my husband was generally calm with the occasional yell at a referee or hiss at an opposing player. This was a calm that quickly deteriorated after we went into the first overtime and was entirely nonexistent by the third overtime. Here, I was on a date with a guy I barely knew, and he was punching the air, leaping through the bleachers, and screaming, “THAT’S HOW OLD ARMY DOES IT!” By the seventh overtime, I was his personal set of maracas to shake in ecstatic ferocity.
And yes, I still ended up marrying him. I quickly came to appreciate his Aggie spirit, not so much for his terrifying fervor at the football games, but rather for his sincere passion at other Aggie events. He maintains that Silver Taps is the most important of the A&M traditions, and I agree. I remember the first time I went to Silver Taps, and I stood there in the darkness with hundreds of other Aggies in Academic Plaza. Even though all those around me were strangers, when those bugles started echoing over the hushed silence of the university, I felt at home.
That is the power of Aggie camaraderie. It is more than memorizing yells, following traditions, and attending football games. It is the unspoken bond between those of us who have chosen this university as our home for next few years. It is the study groups that help us survive the worst professors, the student organizations that give us a place to unashamedly be ourselves, and the lifelong relationships that carry us through the darkest seasons of our time here.
It is the kind of community that focuses on traditions that bring us closer together. At the Bonfire Memorial, we remember the individual; at Aggie Muster, we pay homage to those who came before; and at Silver Taps, we mourn those who left too soon.
Whether or not you’re the proudest and loudest member of your class, the most Red Ass son of a gun you know, or a person simply content to be the two-est of two-percenters, the students at Texas A&M are here for you. We will champion for you while you are here and light a candle for you when you are gone. That is who we are: crazy about our football, crazy about our education, and crazy about our Aggie brothers and sisters. Welcome to the cult.
– Abigail Graves
Abigail is a master's student in the College of Engineering.
I know from experience that jumping headfirst into the cult that is Texas A&M University can be intimidating and, at times, frightening. Being hard of hearing, I barely understood most of the strange phrases that were yelled at me, and what little I did understand did not bring me much more clarity to the whole escapade. Fighting farmers? Old Army? I never got officially indoctrinated into the Aggie traditions the way most undergraduate freshman did through Fish Camp. This left me feeling a little manic during my first few weeks of classes, student organizations, and football games.
I know what it feels like to come to A&M unwitting to the screaming, hooting, and hollering that awaits. Therefore, I want to welcome any graduate students who are new to the university. I hope you are doing well in your classes, settling into College Station easily, and not feeling too overwhelmed yet. However, if you are feeling stressed by the intensity of Texas A&M, everything is going to be alright. Once you are as crazy as the rest of us, you will hardly notice it anymore.
With that, I would like to share a story, partially to reinforce my previous point, but mainly to transition into the overarching theme of this post.
I have been married for a little over a year. I fully understand what a die-hard Aggie my husband is, but that was not always the case. When I first started dating my husband, I was a mild Aggie. I enjoyed the football games; I had learned most of the words to most of the yells; and I could at least hum the Aggie War Hymn. Our first date was the typical dinner and bowling outing, and our second date was the not-so-typical bludgeon each other during basketball at the PEAP. Our third date, however, introduced a new beast to our relationship: the infamous seven-overtime, five-hour long Texas A&M versus LSU slugfest of 2018.
It started as any regular football game does, so throughout the first part of the game, my husband was generally calm with the occasional yell at a referee or hiss at an opposing player. This was a calm that quickly deteriorated after we went into the first overtime and was entirely nonexistent by the third overtime. Here, I was on a date with a guy I barely knew, and he was punching the air, leaping through the bleachers, and screaming, “THAT’S HOW OLD ARMY DOES IT!” By the seventh overtime, I was his personal set of maracas to shake in ecstatic ferocity.
And yes, I still ended up marrying him. I quickly came to appreciate his Aggie spirit, not so much for his terrifying fervor at the football games, but rather for his sincere passion at other Aggie events. He maintains that Silver Taps is the most important of the A&M traditions, and I agree. I remember the first time I went to Silver Taps, and I stood there in the darkness with hundreds of other Aggies in Academic Plaza. Even though all those around me were strangers, when those bugles started echoing over the hushed silence of the university, I felt at home.
That is the power of Aggie camaraderie. It is more than memorizing yells, following traditions, and attending football games. It is the unspoken bond between those of us who have chosen this university as our home for next few years. It is the study groups that help us survive the worst professors, the student organizations that give us a place to unashamedly be ourselves, and the lifelong relationships that carry us through the darkest seasons of our time here.
It is the kind of community that focuses on traditions that bring us closer together. At the Bonfire Memorial, we remember the individual; at Aggie Muster, we pay homage to those who came before; and at Silver Taps, we mourn those who left too soon.
Whether or not you’re the proudest and loudest member of your class, the most Red Ass son of a gun you know, or a person simply content to be the two-est of two-percenters, the students at Texas A&M are here for you. We will champion for you while you are here and light a candle for you when you are gone. That is who we are: crazy about our football, crazy about our education, and crazy about our Aggie brothers and sisters. Welcome to the cult.
– Abigail Graves
Abigail is a master's student in the College of Engineering.