I recently attended the Student Bonfire at Texas A&M. This is an annual event where the students spend weeks cutting down trees, erecting a wedding cake structure with the logs, and lighting the bonfire in a final ceremony where the stack of logs are lit. The peak of the structure is about 40 feet. It was always held the night before the rivalry football game with the University of Texas until Texas A&M went to play in another football conference. The bon fire continued, but now it is scheduled for the night before the last football game instead. This year, it was delayed due to rain and took place in January.
The Student Bonfire (then Aggie Bonfire) on the Texas A&M campus was started in 1909 and was held on campus until 1999. The Aggie Bonfire event suffered a major tragedy in 1999, which ended the bonfire being on campus. Back then the bonfire was held on campus and the structure typically 60 feet or taller. One morning in November, while building the stack of logs, the stack collapse killing 12 students and injuring 27 more. There is a memorial on campus where the bonfire stack collapse took place. The university stopped the bonfire after the tragedy. The university considered having an annual bonfire on campus but stated it would be built by professionals. The students involved in bonfire balked at the idea since in the name of tradition, it was a “Student Bonfire.”
The speaker before lighting the bonfire this year told of the many challenges that Student Bonfire had had following the tragedy in 1999. He started when they were told that the Student Bonfire had to move off campus and people asked, “What are you going to do now?” Student Bonfire found a new place and Student Bonfire relied, “We’re going to build the hell out of bonfire.” Yes. At Texas A&M, they use “hell” quite a bit. The speaker mentioned when the University of Texas backed out of playing the annual rivalry game and people asked, “What are you going to do now?” Student Bonfire decided to burn it the night before the last football game and Student Bonfire relied, “We’re going to build the hell out of bonfire.” This year, Student Bonfire had to move to a new location very late in the year and people asked, “What are you going to do now?” Student Bonfire found a new place and Student Bonfire relied, “We’re going to build the hell out of bonfire.” The speaker went on to say that the students have been answering that question over and over again.
We all face setbacks in life. Every time we have a setback we are asked or internally ask ourselves “What are you going to do now?” In my own life, I have been faced with more setbacks than I care to mention, and I had to ask myself that question and I had to come up with an answer on how to best move forward. When I graduated high school with subpar grades because I slacked off, I started at a lower end university and transferred to a more reputable one. When I finally discovered I was dyslexic in college, I went on to graduate Cum Laude (with honors). When I discovered that being a professor was not the job I wanted, I found a great job in industry. I could go and on about the challenges I have faced in life, but every time, I’ve made the conscious effort to get back up and get going again. In full honesty, I would like to say that I just got up and started again. But in reality, I had to take time to mourn my loss or set back and set a new course. I think mourning is key in getting back up after a setback, but that is for another blog – even Student Bonfire took a few years off after the tragedy to recover before it was time to move on. Lastly, I knew a guy who had a disease that made him need to use the bathroom on a very frequent basis. Rather than get down on life, he got a job as a janitor cleaning toilets.
Next time you face a setback in life, ask yourself the question “What are you going to do now?” Then make a plan on how to answer that question and follow through.
The video of the opening ceremonies at Texas A&M Student Bonfire 2022 with the full speech can be found here: https://texags.com/s/48700/video-replay-student-bonfire-2022/5/1