I had the joy of participating in cut, stack, build, and burn twice in the year and a half I was at TAMU. Then came back and participated in burn many times before I started a family, a job, moved from Texas and could get there each year. Sadly my last one was 95. I broke and cried when I saw on the news the 99 collapse. Cried for those injured, cried for those killed, cried for those that witnessed and helped in the aftermath. Physically heart broken. But I also cried for the loss of Bonfire amd what it meant to me in the times I was able participate. It was more than just banding together and showing spirit, it was the bond that was formed, it was a huge part of what made being an Aggie meant, it was the glue that made the post school community as strong as it was.
I made it back to campus in 2004 when my wife at the time decided to get her Master's. I remember that first day of the fall semester and walking around campus and everything being so different. The Howdy's were few and far between and initiated only by myself, headphones dominated the landscape, groups of students in the various hangouts were completely homogeneous, none of the diversity seen in my day, pajamas and slippers were the dress code of the students going to class, and pathways through the grass around the outer edges of the student center where it was obvious folks just cut the corner a little. The whole place felt divided and individualistic to me. Was there for two years while she worked her program, and it just got worse. I have been back a couple of times since. When my daughter graduated after her master's degree, when my step neice graduated in 2017, and for a football game 2015 my daughter worked as student trainer during her master's program. The divide was still strong, the individual still the most important. It was amazing to me in 2004 how much had changed in a mere 5 years without Bonfire, I have not been back to campus itself since 2017, have no desire to see the further decline. I will cherish my memories from the 89 semester and 90 semesters I spent there instead. Bonfire is gone, it cannot return as society today will never be able to understand what it was and what it meant. The individual is more important than the collective strength of the united.
No, the spirit behind Bonfire has passed into another world it can physically return, but it will never be what it was, and nothing else will be either.