Agricultural and Technical State University - Ayantee Yearbook (Greensboro, NC)

Page 7 text:

Our roots become planted in early tall with school registration. With incessant lines, everything seems a matter of obscurity. Freshmen find complexity and a sort of strangeness. Upperclassmen find confusion. But this is only the first few days — a beginning. Soon complexity, strangeness and confusion dissolve. Aggie life be- comes routine. Classroom buildings come out of summer hibernation, and though thev do not become havens of studv. they become caught up in the manv and varying purposes of those who enter and leave them. Other buildings become places of social exchange. They too may not be havens of any sort, but thev hke- wise become functional in the lives of those who frequent them. These are Aggie people — a people conquering the struggle for indentity. Football season is underway. Somewhere else fo go, and something else to do. Whether the weather is mild or cold, sunny or rainy, the crowds gather in mass to cheer the Aggie team onward. Soon homecoming ventures upon us: coronation; pre-dawn: a parade and the game. The crowd is even larger. Friends, alumni, and even well wishers become part of the crowd. But they are all Aggies, and though the team may win or lose, we all learn to be confident in victory and to be proud in defeat. Basketball season is no different: for as Aggies we have learned to rally to the university ' s cause, and no matter what the outcome, we hold our heads high and continue to move forward. We find variety by doing much of whatever pleases us. There are special occa- sions, good entertainment: and moments of leisure. Making noise, loud stereos and televisions, ringing telephones, gossiping friends and throwing parties — all are means through which some monotony is broken. Whatever our form of relax- ation, it is not waste. We are Aggies, and to us every situation becomes an experi- ence — an emotional hberation or even a thought provocation. The pace of the classroom is never of question. Just as the weather brings fall to a sudden end. we find ourselves suddenly at the end of a semester. The returns are many. For some, it means acceleration to some higher level. To still others, it has been waste. Nevertheless, if it has been nothing else, the classroom has been the most challenging aspect of Aggie life. The instructor has been the mediator, bnng- ing with him knowledge and experience and the vital abihty to move the learning student into greater depths of knowledge. Grasping the many offerings of the classroom, the student is made a more complete person. His learning has not been all theory, listening and acceptance. So begins this volume of the Ayantee — the story of a people attempting to make education useful through practical experience and ultimately realizing that education seeks to develop rather than to alter the individual. Whatever he is upon entering here, he leaves as a man of virture and blessed with the ability to reason through interpretation, understanding and awareness. He is an Aggie, and he is somebody.

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Ui ' i ' ■■ ' ' ' ! % n • I n ! 3 ! I I 5 till ft till Mnnnn Foreword The idea of individuality has assumed many arguments throughout society, and with time, scholars have devoted much thought to just what the individual is and how he becomes that individual. Theologists purport that the individual is the inner self expressed through some mystical evolution, and finally, through aware- ness of natural capabilities. Sociologists argue that there is no individual; for each of us have a predetermmed role which defines our function in whatever we do, and as such, it dictates who we are. Psychologists, philosophers, biologists and var- ied other esoterics have also sought to systematically prescribe the nature of the individual to some form of humanistic or scientific discipline. Individuality has become very much a search for identity, and just as this search has affected the thinking of the intellect elite, it has influenced the direction of the layman as well. In this regard, we at A T have been a distinct lot. We have not tended to systematically order our lives. We have wrestled with identity, and though we have felt a world-wide social influence, we have become a people who accept ourselves through values and reinforcements based upon the concept of self and existence. We are Aggies, and though others may cast us in all types of categories. We Are Somebody. I l.i} ' .! ' itU-jieva ' ' is?i«|. ' .jm» D? ' v i???Wi«K.5if» ' J,V. W(t5

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NIGGUHS Constantly in the groove Digging the scene Acting mean Calm and cool Tenderlbot