Burning Man

My dad and I arrived at Burning Man on Wednesday in the later afternoon. The festival had been going on since Monday but the earliest time my dad could get off of his work as a fourth grade teacher was Wednesday. The camp we were staying with was still setting up though, and continued to be in a state of constant renovation throughout the entire time I was there. We went on a bike ride around the city just exploring and looking around. The next morning my dad woke me up around 8:30, although the heat would have awoken me soon. I knew my friend and his mom should be getting there on that day so as we went around exploring more I kept my eyes open for him. I wrote that I was looking for him on every bulletin board I saw but with no luck. He knew where we were camping because we were with a theme camp and he and his mom were on their own. Still, it’s difficult to find people in a city of fifty thousand and no phones or any other useful technology to speak of. By Friday I was getting more and more discouraged. My dad told me that I had to stop dwelling on finding him. I might never find him and he wanted to me to have a good time and not worry about it. I knew he was right and so I let it go. If I didn’t see him here I would surely see him back at home in the bay area. As I was thinking this, I was walking around a huge tent and who did I see but him walking towards me! We embraced and we were inseparable for the rest of our time at Burning Man. We climbed giant tower in the middle of the night, took refuge in an air conditioned geodesic dome during a huge dust storm, stayed out all night dancing and exploring the desert and watched from his camper van as the Man burned on Saturday night. On Sunday, we both had to leave the desert and head back to the default world and so we went our separate ways and my father and I began the long drive home, covered in dust and full of memories.

What if you had not run into him then? Would you ever have given up looking for him?

What if you did run into him, but he wanted nothing to do with you? Would you try to find out why? Or would you let matters lie?

What if you had never found your friend?

What if you discovered he were the Burning Man?

What if you all got lost in the desert?

If you all had to eat someone to survive, who would it be?

What if your "friend" robbed you both?

What if you were actually in a fake burning man that was sting operation to kill all the hippie terrorists

My dad and I arrived at Burning Man on Wednesday in the later afternoon. The festival had been going on since Monday but the earliest time my dad could get off of his work as a fourth grade teacher was Wednesday. The camp we were staying with was still setting up though, and continued to be in a state of constant renovation throughout the entire time I was there. We went on a bike ride around the city just exploring and looking around. The next morning my dad woke me up around 8:30, although the heat would have awoken me soon. I knew my friend and his mom should be getting there on that day so as we went around exploring more I kept my eyes open for him. I wrote that I was looking for him on every bulletin board I saw but with no luck. He knew where we were camping because we were with a theme camp and he and his mom were on their own. Still, it’s difficult to find people in a city of fifty thousand and no phones or any other useful technology to speak of. By Friday I was getting more and more discouraged. My dad told me that I had to stop dwelling on finding him. I might never find him and he wanted to me to have a good time and not worry about it. I knew he was right and so I let it go. If I didn’t see him here I would surely see him back at home in the bay area. One of the three main themes of Burning Man is radical self reliance. This goes from everything to being responsible for your own hydration and sun protection to making your own fun. I realized that you get only what you put into Burning Man and I really would not have fun if I spent the week looking for my friend. After all, there were fifty thousand other people there who I had yet to meet. I spent the rest of the week spending quality time with my dad, meeting amazing people, dancing and exploring. It was the most amazing and transformative week of my life.