I'm
Abraham Rodriguez, born in San Francisco in '88 and until recently I lived in
Oakland for most of my life. I graduated from High School there, even attended
a community college there for a year until I left for Chabot College in
Hayward.
Perhaps
my greatest experience in these past seven years since graduating High School
has been my involvement in the Burning Man community and the two visits I made
to the world-famous music festival in the Nevada desert.
The
festival attracts people from all over the world and encourages its attendants
to participate in the form of exhibits, music stages or elaborate art cars that
wander the Gerlach playa.
Having
grown up in the city and in a place like Oakland, travelling to Burning Man as
a twenty-something year old with little camping experience was a mind-opening
experience that forever transformed my views on the world and people around me.
I learned
how to become increasingly self-reliant and found an appreciation for nature
and the world around me that I had never felt before in my twenty two year old
self.
I met new
people from all kinds of walks of life, like German tourists, Russian expatriates,
and a Father and Son duo that made the journey to Burning Man every year together
from Seattle, Washington to meet up with friends they had made at the festival.
I felt
that having been part of the fifty thousand or so attendants that go to Burning
Man every year allowed me to grow as a person and gave me a mature perspective
on life.
I’m able
to understand and empathize with people on a level I would not have been able
to before and learned that not all of life’s wonders are found in a museum or a
park.
