Homecoming is a great time here on campus. It’s a time for students to show their pride and for alumni to come back and share in the festivities.

Homecoming is filled with traditions but there is one tradition that I think is overrated – Mass Campaniling.

Mass Campaniling is when people meet at the Campanile to kiss their “true love” at midnight. The legend goes that a person is not a true Iowa State student unless they have been campaniling. That is a bunch of crap because who decides if you are a true ISU student or not?

There are two Mass Campanilings held every school year, one during homecoming and one during Veishea. I myself have never been campaniling at either of those times. Trust me it is not from lack of trying on my part, I just have never done it.

Yes, if you go and kiss somebody at midnight with thousands of other people you probably feel like you belong. But do you go campaniling because it is an event during homecoming or do you do it because you actually fell for that special someone and wanted to show you care in the Iowa State way?

If I find that special person at Iowa State and we do decide to follow the paths of so many other students by kissing underneath the tall tower, I don’t want anyone else around. It is a special moment to be shared with two people.

I’m not an exhibitionist and maybe because of my upbringing I don’t show my affection in public because it’s rude to other people and can be embarrassing. Plus think of the fact that there is a chance to be immortalized in the Daily when a photographer catches you sticking your tongue down your partner’s throat and everyone across the nation gets to see it.

I am sure that’s a picture to send home to mom and dad to see what you have been up to at school.

Traditions are a great thing to celebrate and continue, but you don’t always have to be a traditionalist.

Like many other students, I came to Iowa State because my father went here but I don’t do everything that he did. His sweetheart did not go to school here, so dad didn’t get to follow the tradition. Many other students are in the same situation with their special someone somewhere else.

They may not get the chance to go campaniling at anytime during their college years here. Does that make them true students here?

There are other traditions here Iowa State has changed and yet even though we do not follow them we are still considered true students. A few years ago Veishea used to be wet and students and everyone else drank continuously.

They also canceled classes on Fridays so that everyone could join in the weekend celebration and had thousands of people arriving in Ames just to have a good time.

Everyone knows when you enter the Memorial Union you are supposed to walk around the Zodiac or else you will perform poorly on your next exam. I don’t worry about that tradition because I walk right over the Zodiac, and I am sure that many other students do as well.

So some people think that I am not a true or traditional student because I do not believe in superstitions of the past or make out in public. I am still a true ISU student, I wear my cardinal and gold and I hate the Hawkeyes.

I support the teams whether they win or lose and sing along to the ISU fight song.

I may not have been campaniling and it’s my senior year, but does that mean I have wasted four years of my life getting an education and not following the unwritten rules to be a true Iowa State student.

Sorry but even though I love my school, I am not going to follow the rest of the herd like a stupid cow. I am going to follow my own path which is the same path which led me to be an ISU student.

Wesley Griffin is a senior in agricultural education from Grand River.