K & S and K & E: Remembering...

Eleven years ago I was a senior in high school. My friend Tiffany and I went to College Station to Aggie Bonfire with her boyfriend (my then boyfriend was already a student at A&M). We had a great weekend. It was such a cool experience. Bonfire was more than I imagined. And it was HOT. And I couldn't wait to get on campus the next fall. Tiff and I had both been accepted for the next fall as freshmen. And A&M was the only college I had applied to. I was going to be an Aggie.

Fast forward one year... I was a freshman at A&M. Tiff was my roommate. She woke me up EARLY on November 18, 1999. Bonfire had collapsed early that morning. Aggies were injured. Aggies were killed. Tiff drove me to class that Thursday morning and dropped me off, but my class had been canceled. Most everyone's had. The Battalion that morning headlined the collapse... 4 had been killed.

As the day went on, we made contact with some of our high school friends who were Aggies... making sure we were all okay. Campus was a blur. Everyone was out at the field... just waiting and watching.

I went to the service they had in Reed Arena that night. There was standing room only. At the end of the memorial, one person in the Arena started singing Amazing Grace... and before I knew what had happened the entire Arena had linked arms and was singing together.

By the end 12 had died and 27 had been injured.

The next week we played Texas at Kyle Field. That was the most awesome sporting event I've ever been to. It was emotional and moving and made me even more proud to be an Aggie. The flyover was F-16 jets, and they flew over in missing man formation. The Texas band played a tribute to our loss at halftime, and removed their hats as they walked off the field. The Aggie Band also had a moving performance and walked off the field in silence (normally they end walking off to the war hymn). The student section stands for the entire game, except at halftime and while the other teams band plays... on this day, the student section, myself included, stood for the Longhorn Band as well. You can read more about the actual game here.

For the next year, I drove past the stacks of logs from Bonfire every day when I went to class. I don't remember exactly when they were finally moved, but every day I remembered. Now there is a memorial... dedicated to the Aggies who lost their lives and were injured in the collapse. I've never been to the memorial.

I am thankful that I was able to attend the Bonfire in 1998. Many of my fellow Fightin Texas Aggie Class of '03ers have never seen a Bonfire burn. There is an off campus bonfire these days that started in 2002... I've never been to that either. For me, it is not the real Aggie Bonfire.

It doesn't seem like 10 years ago... the memory of that day is all still very vivid in my mind.

I'm not sure if Aggie Bonfire will ever return to the Texas A&M campus. If it does, I'll be there. If it doesn't, I'll still never forget.