I first went to Burning Man in 2011 when a “mom” friend of mine mentioned she had purchased a ticket. We talked and decided I would buy a ticket and we would go together and share the experience. Together we planned and found a ride being offered for a fee on Craig’s List in a school bus with a 3 time burner from Washington State. We borrowed a tent, bought way too much food, packed and planned, watched a ton of youtube videos and mentally prepared ourselves for we knew not what.

I did have some trepidation about doing Burning Man over 50. Would the wind and dust overwhelm whatever fun things there were to do? Would I have breathing problems? Was it worth it.

Our “ride” was a veteran burner and invited us to camp with his burning man camp family during the event. This was a huge help as we would be with more experienced burners. First time burners are referred to as Sparkle Ponies for a multitude of reasons including coming unprepared, falling in love repeatedly, not drinking enough water, wearing enough sun screen, eating enough protein, drinking too much alcohol, a wide-eyed expression for more than 48 hours straight, and the list goes on.

Burning man art projectMy experience at Burning Man had three interesting effects on me. The first was that I had an unexplainable renewed hope for humankind. I think that came from this scene, this immense spectacle that people create for a week with only one motive, to share. The other two things I notice was that I had a complete disinterest in people and things that typically annoy me. Those things still were annoying, but I didn’t care. And the last thing, which did wear off in a couple months was breaking into little spontaneous songs at any given time including in public, and not caring.

Let me say that yes, it was worth it, SO WORTH IT!