Tradition is defined in the dictionary as the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation. Tradition is an important aspect of culture, in familial relations, holiday celebrations, and has religious value.

When I first visited Texas A&M in the fall of 2014, I had zero intention of attending this university the following year. Well, not exactly zero intention. I knew that, as a result of my academic achievements, I would have an automatic admission when, if, I chose to apply to this university.

However, prior to my first visit to the university, I did not think this university was the right fit for me. I consider myself to be very liberal, and I loved growing up near a large city, Dallas.

A university, in the middle of nowhere, and a university known for its very conservative and religious student base did not seem like it would be the right fit for me.

Or rather, I did not think I would be well-suited to attend this university.

During my first visit, I had the opportunity to attend my very first Midnight Yell. It was this, not my first football game, that made me fall in love with the university.

An event that brought a large majority of the student body, as well as other Aggie supporters in the Bryan/College Station community, to come together and get ready to yell for the football team the following day truly showed me the Aggie spirit.

It is often said about Texas A&M, “From the outside looking in, you can’t understand it. And from the inside looking out, you can’t explain it.”

The traditions I learned about caused me to fall in love with the university. I loved the illustrious history of the university, and the commitment of the student body to respect, honor, and continue those traditions.

However, traditions are not everything.

By choosing to attend Texas A&M, I was already not keeping in tradition with my family. My paternal grandparents both attended Grambling University, a historically black college in Louisiana.

My parents met at and both graduated from Southern Methodist University, a small liberal arts college in Dallas. I considered both universities when applying to colleges, but after visiting Texas A&M, I decided to start my own tradition.

Some traditions at Texas A&M have not always been inclusive. At the beginning of the university’s history, the university was an all-male military school. Texas A&M also did not admit black students. Women or black students were not admitted to the university until 1963.

Women were not admitted to the corps of cadets until 1974. LGBTQ students or students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer were not allowed to establish the Gay Students Organization until 1977, and these students had to engage in a legal battle with the university for the rights of recognition and their inclusion was ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court.

One argument, frequently used by those who want to exclude a particular group of people from an institution or a service, is that the inclusion of these people would go against tradition.

Tradition delayed the enrollment of women and black students to the university. Tradition allowed for the exclusion of services and the visibility of LGBTQ students on campus. Tradition is great, but tradition is not great when it is used as a way to exclude others.

When I attended my New Student Conference or NSC in the summer of 2015, prior to my first semester at A&M, I noticed something funny. There were so many prospective students bragging about how their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or even great-great-grandparents had attended the university.

When I mentioned that I was a first-generation Aggie, I frequently got an “Oh, that’s okay too” or looks of sympathy, as if this condition of, to me little importance, was something to be pitied.

What did not occur to me until later was that, even if I wanted to be, I could not be even a third-generation Aggie.

By the time my grandparents graduated from Grambling, black students were only beginning to be allowed to enroll at the university. Yes, only two generations back, my grandparents were not allowed to this university. As a woman of color, sometimes I question my place at an institution that only a little over fifty years ago would not have admitted me as a student. However, times change. Traditions change. As a woman of color, I continue to champion diversity and inclusion at a place that has not always done the same.

I love Texas A&M, and I love the traditions that make this place so special and unique to the hundreds of thousands of Aggies. The Aggie Network is one of the strongest and largest alumni networks. When I traveled abroad this past summer, my study abroad group ran into an Aggie at the top of the Austrian Alps.

Wherever you go, an Aggie probably is also. It’s like members of your family are sprinkled all throughout the globe if you look hard enough. I cherish the place I have created for myself here, but that does not mean that I can ignore that not all women, or people of color, could have done the same.

Traditions are great, but traditions aren’t everything.