I don't remember quite what made me want to go to A&M - it had to have been the fact that my brother went to basketball camp with his friends when I was in maybe the 4th or 5th grade. We checked him and got him set up in the dorms and my friend, Katy, and I refused to leave. (Me more because Jeremy had really cute friends, her because she was a really talented athlete and probably wanted to learn and improve some basketball skills.) The campus was about half the size it is now and was still huge - I loved everything about it. I think it must have been from that trip that I knew I wanted to be a Fightin' Texas Aggie.
We have a saying that from the outside looking in you can't understand it and from the inside looking out you can't explain it. Never has a crazy cliche of a phrase been more true. You can't explain it and you certainly can't understand it until you've lived it. I loved the first 4.5 years so much that I decided to stay for grad school. I knew the next two years would teach me more about the profession that I was going to pursue but I never in a million years thought that those years would bring women into my life that would teach me so much more.
They teach me how to raise kids with intention...
they teach me how to support husbands with crazy jobs. How to speak up. How to find joy. How to love deeply. And although some of us are spread by thousands of miles, we still find the time to laugh and cry and connect.
This past weekend I got to show my girls the power of women friendship through the love of our Texas Aggies.
Game days are the best days to be on campus - the energy and excitement can not be matched and the girls were so excited for their first Aggie game.
Right up until they walked up three ramps and sat out in the sun. Landry was clearly not into any of that nonsense.
Landry was forcing smiles.
But they kept asking me about the new people they met, the stories we were sharing and why I loved being a Texas Aggie. I pointed to all the people sitting in those stands, sticking out the heat to watch the Aggies play a PITIFUL first half of football and just said, "Aggies are our people. We bleed maroon. We stand up for each other. We fight for each other and even when we disagree, we are all bonded by being Aggies."
They whooped and gig'ed and "AAAAAed" right along the other 80K people in the stands. They swayed and saw'ed 'em off and fell a little bit more in love with the place that went from being my school to becoming my home.
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