Freshmen at Large - Cristine Mayer Pt. 1

Howdy ya’ll! My name is Cristine. I am a freshman Telecommunication Media Studies major from The Woodlands, Texas. But more importantly I am the proudest member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie class of 2010!
I’ve been a Texan my whole life and have enjoyed every blistering hot moment of it. Community service and music have always been favorite activities of mine. I think I’d tried almost every instrument imaginable, until I settled with the drums for a few years. This year, I decided to settle with just being the listener, not the player. My iPod is usually stuck somewhere in-between Coldplay, Sufjan Stevens, the Arcade Fire and Radiohead — but really I listen to it all.
Coming from a school with a graduating class of nearly 1,200 students, I figured a large school like Texas A&M would be a breeze. Now I’m starting to realize that 4,000 vs. 40,000 plus in a school is quite a difference. As the oldest child of three, my departure for college has definitely been one of the more eventful moments in our family history.
This summer, I spent a lot of time working and enjoying my last few weeks of no responsibility. Of course there was the inevitable: the New Student Conference (NSC). Luckily, I somehow ended up signing up for a conference with people I knew. But nonetheless, I’ll never forget the overwhelming feeling I felt that first time I logged on to myrecord.tamu.edu to register for my first classes. I remember thinking that I only needed to race to register for one class because all the others had plenty of spots. And in all of the two seconds it took me to sign up for that class, the spot had already been filled. Not the most encouraging experience for a freshman used to her high school counselor pretty much making her entire schedule. But NSC was where I first got psyched to be a Texas A&M fish. I remember sitting in Rudder thinking to myself “this is going to be my life next year, and you know what? I can’t wait.”
So, like I said, NSC was the beginning of my Aggie spirit. But when I say beginning, oh, I mean, it really was merely the beginning. I don’t think I ever knew the extent of enthusiasm for Texas A&M until I went to Fish Camp. Being at Session A was probably the best choice I was ever given. At first it was a bit overwhelming, but Camp Hatfield made me feel like I had a family at Texas A&M before I had even lived in College Station for a night. I was lucky enough to be in a DG with leaders who were absolutely amazing as well being in a camp where everyone seemed to be excited to be there. It’s a once in a lifetime thing, and it’s something I think will have always made my life here at Texas A&M just that much more enjoyable.
But when it comes down to it, expectations of Midnight Yell Practice, football games and everything in-between are what have gotten me through these past few weeks before the start of school. Knowing that a land filled with maroon pride awaited my fellow classmates and me. So, class of 2010, let’s get pumped. Gig ‘em!