I tend to remember years as occurence-based entities, often saying or thinking things like "so-and-so happened in 1995" or "yeah, 1987, the year of blah blah blah." 1999, a year that normally would have been remembered with little other than negativity, will, at least for me, always be bittersweet. You see, my first child was born in 1999, a son. His first Aggie campus visit was to the Bonfire site and his first Aggie event was during yell and the candlelight vigil that week. The first question he (and his sister, later) were taught to answer from memory was "What color is dirty" -- I guess you know the answer, tho. ~grins~
I'll remember the days of the collapse and the feelings and emotions that followed for any number of reasons. Of all the emotions, the one tugged on me stronger than the loss of fellow Aggies came when, for the first time, I realized that my son and all the other future Aggies might never see Bonfire burn. This hit me harder than I would have ever thought it could and is something that I think of every November, when I'm thinking about the loss of life, the loss of the tradition and hoping that administration eventually sees its way clear to bring the event back or recognize the off-campus Bonfire.
I'll remember the days of the collapse and the feelings and emotions that followed for any number of reasons. Of all the emotions, the one tugged on me stronger than the loss of fellow Aggies came when, for the first time, I realized that my son and all the other future Aggies might never see Bonfire burn. This hit me harder than I would have ever thought it could and is something that I think of every November, when I'm thinking about the loss of life, the loss of the tradition and hoping that administration eventually sees its way clear to bring the event back or recognize the off-campus Bonfire.
