A couple of things:
Like so many other Aggies, I receive a shot of confidence whenever I look down at my Aggie Ring.
It’s not because it’s gold — I’ve never been very materialistic — and while I’m happy “Texas A&M University” is embossed on the ring, it’s not just because I studied at this great school. As for others, my Aggie Ring is a source of confidence because of the years of hard work I put into my education.
We are the sum of our experiences, and my time at Texas A&M — including the anxiety, fun, failure and success — molded me into the person I am today. While I’m obviously not perfect, I can at least say my time here went unwasted (a good part of it, anyway).
While any path through life certainly isn’t easy, you won’t gain any self-respect if you don’t challenge yourself. So, in the future, when you look down at your Aggie Ring, make sure it means more to you than an embossed piece of gold.
An essential part to this is working hard in all of your classes and cultivating yourself academically, but something equally important is becoming active in the Aggie community. With 60,000 students attending, this university offers something for everyone. And while the size can be intimidating, it just means you have more room to grow.  
Personally, I had the opportunity to work at The Battalion for a year and a semester, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve had the chance to meet and talk with so many interesting people as well as work with a truly impressive group of students.
For my last point, I’ll leave you with some advice that stuck with me from high school — not because it was good, but because it was notably bad.
An earnest teacher once told me and a room full of students the most important thing about taking a standardized test is to correctly fill in the bubbles. She then described to us the proper technique (Shocker: shade the middle of the circle). Initially I thought she was joking, and then I just felt cheated; how can that be the most important part? I could understand the need to fill in bubbles correctly, but I felt there must be something more pressing than coloring in the lines.
I mention this anecdote not because I want the reader to passively take away a certain message or idea, but just the opposite.
Everyone is constantly giving advice and trying to convince each other of something. In our time at Texas A&M, we’ve all heard the ramblings and opinions of professors, our peers and our parents about what is right in the world and what is wrong, and about what we should do and we should have done.
Thankfully, a higher education gives you the tools to decide these things for yourself. So be equipped to question and to think critically — and then figure out what is right and influence others to think so too.  
I’m not telling you to disregard whatever you hear from professors or anyone else. I’m telling you that if someone says the most important, pressing issue out there is to correctly bubble in the answers, think for yourself and come to your own conclusion.
Sam Scott is a telecommunication media studies senior and assistant news editor for The Battalion.