Aggie Ring Day - Thank you!

The Association of Former Students

To whom it may concern:

I was recently on campus to participate in Aggie Ring Day with my niece.  Being the only other Aggie in the family, I was honored that she chose me to put her ring on her finger.  We didn’t have the kind of ceremony that there is now, so I could not guide her through the process and was a little worried that we might not know where to go or what to do to get through easily.

As you know, September 27 was brutally hot, and it rained a bit…only making the misery worse.  To top it off, there were thousands of other students and family with the same goal we had, and we all had to wait.  I was impressed that somehow you made order out of chaos.  It wasn’t a perfect system, but everyone we spoke with seemed prepared to answer our questions and guide us the best they could.

I cannot say enough about the good humor everyone exhibited.  From the guy with the megaphone shouting instructions to us in the heat to the guides at the doors to the center, everyone was smiling and looked genuinely happy to be there.  Even after all the hours they must have worked (we were group 22 and arrived at 3:30 pm), everyone was still pleasant and nice.

I have enclosed a photo with this note because I want to point out what meant the most to me as an “Old Ag”.  The photo is of me and my niece hugging after I put the ring on her finger, of course we were so very happy.  But I want to point out the people in the background of the photo.  At that point, they had probably given out hundreds, if not thousands, of rings.  However, when my niece got hers, they seemed to be almost as delighted as we were.  They clapped and whooped and said congratulations and wanted to see the ring on her finger.  It made her feel as if she were the first and only student to get a ring.  It was truly special.

The time seemed to go by so fast.  I think I remembered to thank the workers that I saw, but it is all a blissful blur.

Aggieland is an exceptional place and we always talk about how Former Students are always there for each other.  Sometimes, we forget that there are plenty of others who work hard to make it an exceptional place.  Please extend our appreciation to every Texas A&M employee who worked to make my niece’s ring day experience so wonderful:  from the Campus Security Officers to the Janitorial Staff to  the wonderful people who actually work at the Former Student Association, and to all others who were there to assist. 

It is really hard to conduct an event that makes 100,000 people walk away feeling special.  Somehow, you made that happen.

From a grateful Aggie…thanks and Gig ‘Em!
Janine Sanders ‘89