The 100 mile drive from Reno to the Black Rock Desert had taken 9
excruciatingly long hours, most of which had been spent in heavy
bumper-to-bumper traffic.
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
