We Will Never Forget

Nine years ago today, I was in the sixth grade. Twelve years old, snuggled in bed safe and warm, and oblivious to what was occurring 75 miles northwest of Houston. My older sister aroused me from my deep slumber early in the morning to inform me that the Texas A&M Bonfire had collapsed.

The stack had fallen.

So many students (at least a greater majority) attending the University in the present time have no recollection of this event. They had only learned about it upon fish camp, or perhaps strolling the campus one day when they came upon the memorial.

I remember as if it were yesterday.

My older brothers were in College Station going to school (maybe the oldest one had graduated already, I can't remember) when the tragedy occurred, and my first thought was to make sure they were okay. My mother, of course, placed her call and made sure they were not on the Polo fields when it fell. They were both okay.

We were fortunate.

I sat and watched the television all morning. I watched as crew members removed log after log from the stack. I witness students jumping in to help whenever they deemed it necessary, hoping to recover their fellow Aggie family members. I saw helpless students drop to their knees to pray, the only thing they could do.



I cried.

I was shuffled off to school and taken away from my news outlet, but I still heard updates. I heard the number grow as people murmured in the hallway...2, 4, 6, 7, 11, etc. I felt so helpless. All I could do was watch. I clipped newspaper articles in the week after and made sure to keep them to make sure I would never forget.

I didn't need the newspaper articles.

What I felt that day was unexplainable. I was only twelve, but I had never felt more apart of the Aggie Family. I made my own memory ribbon and wore it to school over the next three days and continued to pray for the fallen 12 and 27 injured. A few weeks later we visited College Station and walked over to the Polo fields. My mother lost it. The atmosphere was amazing, both good and bad. Here was this area, roped off with police tape and orange temporary gating, where a tragic event occurred and where people lost loved ones and friends. Twelve had lost their lives, but there must have been over 40,000 sets of flowers, pots, rings, notes, and anything else the student body could think of laying beside the makeshift orange barriers. I later learned that at the time of the collapse students ran up and down their dorms yelling for everyone to go to the stack and help save those caught in the destruction. The football team and students came together and pulled off logs one by one with their own bare hands. The Aggie spirit was being tested.

The Aggie Spirit overcame.

Even in times of tragedy, we stood strong. Throughout the aftermath and the years to follow we helped in any way we could and made sure to never forget. I visited the memorial earlier this year in May, I walked away with a heavy heart. The events of November 18, 1999 were tragic, but we must never forget. Those students perished working on a tradition they loved at a school they held dear to their hearts, and for that reason we must treat them with the same devotion they gave to Texas A&M University. Now, I am not going to get into all the "should Bonfire be brought back to campus" argument. I don't believe I have the right to make that call, nor do I believe it to be the responsibility of anyone who was not affected by this event directly. We have to respect the families of the ones we lost. If they are comfortable with seeing one of A&M's greatest traditions burn again, then so be it, but until that time....

We must never forget.