Maroon Out

It's the Battle of the Brazos weekend. I'm working the desk right now with my Aggie Sister t-shirt on and I'm watching all of these Maroon Out t-shirts walk by outside and I can't help but get excited about seeing them. I know that I find myself in the minority about this, but I'm not ashamed to say that I like Aggies, and I bleed maroon with them. I had planned on going to A&M for most of my life, and it wasn't until I was called into the ministry my junior year in high school that I decided to redirect my studies to Baylor.

Since my sister was at A&M, I would visit her on occasion and get excited about one day being there amidst all of the maroon, the "Howdy's," the 12th Man Spirit, the Midnight Yell Practices and the list goes on. There is such a rich tradition that I have not found at any other school I've ever visited. Granted, I know about as much about A&M traditions as I know about Baylor traditions, but even in comparing those two, Baylor looks weak in tradition. A&M doesn't excel in football as much as they'd like to, but they still pack out Kyle Field for every game because their spirit is strong. Today, Floyd Casey Stadium will probably have more maroon than gold in it.
Side note: By the way, our idea for Gold Rush stemmed from A&M's Maroon Out. Maroon Out was started when Aggies were tired of seeing more red on their campus than maroon when the Nebraska Cornhuskers would come to play. They unified all of their organizations by selling $5 maroon t-shirts and they "marooned out" the stadium.

I don't understand why A&M always gets such a hard time from people. I don't think I've ever had a class at Baylor where Aggies weren't the brunt of at least one joke at some point in the semester. Most of the jokes are geared towards some type of stupidity found among Aggies. I've been around a lot of Aggies and I have not found this to be a general consensus among them. They do have their share of those that are immature and not so bright, but what school doesn't for that matter? Some people make fun of the strong tradition as if it is some type of cult, but it's really just strong school spirit. Yeah, some of the freshmen go overboard but given time, they grow out of it and simmer down. There is such great comradery and so many connections that one has when one graduates from A&M. I've discovered that most of the people that make fun of A&M are really ignorant about the school and what it offers to its students in all areas of an institution.

I'm proud to be an Aggie sister and an Aggie sister-in-law and if I could have had the chance to go to college twice, I'd be proud to be an Aggie. So bring on the jokes. I can take 'em.