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Carlos Puentes and Oscar Almanza started their friendship about 31/2 years ago on the Texas A&M Student Recreation Center's soccer fields. On Tuesday, as they walked across campus with hundreds of other members of the senior class, each reflected on their time in college and plans for the future.
Puentes and Almanza played on the same T-ball team, went to the same school and even lived less than a mile away from each other when they were children -- Puentes lived in Matamoros, Mexico, and Almanza in Matamoros and later Brownsville.
They somehow never connected as friends back then, but after reuniting in College Station, the pair became roommates, and, they hope, lifelong friends.
In the days and weeks ahead, seniors at Texas A&M will experience their last home football game, their last bonfire and will embark on -- at least what should be -- their last semester in college. Thousands also participated Tuesday in a tradition known as Elephant Walk.
"We've learned to come together, support each other in hard times," Almanza said. "Sharing that with someone you really know -- walking around campus and reflecting on where you are -- the tradition and the friendship go hand in hand."
Elephant Walk began in 1922 as a way to break a streak of bad luck the football team had come across. Two freshman members of the Aggie Band began playing a mournful funeral march on the field and several other students joined in, creating a line of people who wandered throughout campus.
Over the years, it has transitioned into a period of reflection for seniors -- who wander through campus to take in the sights for a symbolic last time before embarking on the final semester.
"There's a bunch of mixed feelings," said Robert Britt, a senior genetics and biochemistry major, as he sat with fellow members of the Corps of Cadets in Kyle Field. "I'm glad to have my boots and my ring, but this is kind of a sobering experience. It really makes you reflect on your time here."
Juniors have participated since 1993, taking a different route through campus to Kyle Field.
Rumki Mannan, a junior engineering major from College Station, participated in Elephant Walk with two of her friends, also juniors.
"Coming to it as a junior, you get to see the seniors reflect on their time here and really connect with them," she said. "And for seniors, it's like they're leaving their mark on the university, passing the torch on to us. It's just an amazing tradition."
Former First Lady Barbara Bush addressed what was called a record crowd of around 2,000 and offered four bits of wisdom:
* Learn not to take yourself too seriously;
* You never know what's going to happen next;
* Family, friends and faith are always of utmost importance;
* Becoming an involved and active member of your community is paramount;
She even prodded former President George H.W. Bush to a quick and impromptu speech on the virtues of a life of service.
Too often, she said, people wait for a momentous occasion to become involved or serve others. There's no need, though, she said, to wait.
"Hopefully, you'll figure out sooner rather than later, that it's ordinary people who become our everyday heroes," she said.
Hours later, at 8 p.m., a 45-foot-tall bonfire was lit at a site about 15 minutes from campus.
Robertson County Sheriff Gerald Yezak said he believes it was easily the largest crowd for a bonfire since the tradition moved off-campus after the 1999 collapse that killed 12 Aggies.
"I'd ballpark [attendance] somewhere around 8,500, and that's on the conservative side," he said around 10 p.m. "There haven't been any problems, except, because of the rain, some folks are getting their cars stuck."
Jeremy Stark, a senior political science major, was one of three seniors at the top of the Student Bonfire hierarchy, a red pot. He's worked on the bonfire tradition for four years and wasn't able to make it to Elephant Walk because of that commitment.
He doesn't feel like he missed out on much, though, because, he said, bonfire provided him the same opportunities for growth and reflection.
"There's a reason why when bonfire burned on campus, the end of E-walk was the bonfire stack," he said. "Because it allowed for everyone to participate in the build, to come together, to take an active role and build something together. It's about teaching young people how to get along and grow."
