Despite Texas A&M University being the largest campus in all of Texas, you are guaranteed to be running into more people than you would ever expect you would. I cannot even explain how many days I woke up late and threw on sweatpants and a t-shirt thinking I wouldn’t see anyone I knew and ALWAYS running into someone surprising. The campus is known to have all kinds of students, professors, and even dogs (shout out to our beloved Reveille) milling around at all hours of the day, from when the sun rises to when the sun sets. Here are a couple of types of people you are practically guaranteed to always see around the university!
When You See Someone On Campus You Recognize
One of the biggest differences that people use to distinguish college from high school is the people. In high school there is a smaller pond of people based on the district you’re in, which means you pretty much only go to school with the people that live in the same area as you. Everyone has the same curriculum so most of the time you’ll be in the same classes with a lot of other peers you know and are forced to spend time with them whether you talk to them or not because the classes can be smaller. In college there are thousands of students, and even if you have the same class with someone it doesn’t mean they have to become your friend, or that you even have to talk to them. People often say, “You’ll never have to see them again!” when you are ranting to them about that someone’s crappy attitude or sloppy group project work ethic. The difference is that you WILL see them again, in another random time or random place, but it is up to you whether you acknowledge them, wave, stop and talk, or pretend you didn’t see them and try to hide amongst the herds of people around you so they don’t see you.
Yes, professors have lives too, as well as places to be. It is very likely that you will see them around campus– especially if all your classes are in the same building. With all the different classes you have to take over the multiple years you spend at Texas A&M University, you already have a wide range of professors that have taught you. This makes for you ALWAYS seeing at least one of them a semester. This always takes me back when this happens, as if I hadn’t even considered it being a possibility. Another thing about living in a college town such as College Station is that it is likely to also see them off-campus, perhaps at grocery stores, restaurants, or even one time I saw one of my professors two-stepping the night away at Harry’s. Crazy, right?
Corps of Cadets are taken extremely serious at Texas A&M University, and there are many students who represent this student military organization. I have always seen multiple members in almost every class I’ve taken as well as walking the campus grounds. You always know one of them is around because of the satisfying clicking of their boots. I’ve always admired those who’ve had the guts and strength to join so it’s incredibly heartwarming to see so many students involved in such an organization.
I know what you’re thinking, but unless you went to a really obscure high school, you WILL see someone you’ve know from those awkward years here. Texas A&M University is a huge campus as we’ve already discussed, and super well know over a multitude of states. Over the years I have been caught off guard by someone I hadn’t seen for three and a half years come up to me and say hi.
Rudder Plaza and the Memorial Student Center are huge hotspots for publicity because so many people walk through the area to get to study areas, buses, parking lots, and classes. Students from organizations, housing complexes, and brand ambassador jobs will use the campus to attempt to talk to you about becoming involved. This can be really cool because that’s where you could have found all the information you needed for the dream organization, place to live, or job– while also being the most likely time to catch students being closed off with their headphones in, trying to avoid the hundreds of flyers coming their way.
If you participated in attending fish camp before coming to this university for the first time, you will always run into someone you met in these first experiences in an environment close to the actual school itself. Whether it is one of your fish camp counselors, fellow DG students, or members from other camps at the same session as you, it is guaranteed you’ll be spotting them on campus one way or another. This can be comforting because they are the first people to give you warm faces to know at the university if you do not enter with friends you already have.
This is the most awkward encounter ever, if you obsess as much as I do about figuring out how you know someone. You meet so many people in your lifetime and throughout college, you can’t be expected to remember every single person you have ever seen, and yet for me it is super frustrating when I simply can’t remember.
Even when they are put out of mind, it does not mean they are out of sight. Encountering guys or girls from classes, someone you’ve seen in the library every day, or have known them forever, can be a form of nostalgia. It reminds you of someone you once were when you had a thing for them. Even if it was recent, sometimes it’s just fun to reflect on how you used to act in their presence. I don’t know about you, but I always tend to shake my head at my silly behavior.
Every time I take the bus to and from campus, I start to recognize the different drivers and eventually start seeing them on campus. A lot of them are students who were looking for an on-campus job so they are running around taking classes too. There is one specific male driver who has a unique style to his driving, by constantly communicating to the passengers on board by yelling over the road noise to give good advice about the day or alert you of the stop he’s making. I can recognize him all over Texas A&M University campus now.
This can be the most surprising encounter of them all, even though it shouldn’t be. The campus is so large it’s hard not to see them. It’s always the most exciting moment when you find your friends at the university, like this was the last place on earth you’d find them. And if you end up in the same class? Frickin’ mind blowing! It brightens up the whole semester if you ask me. There are a surprising amount of people you will always run into at Texas A&M University.
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