Taking Life with Chances

My goal was to get back to the hotel, shower, put on comfy clothes, organize my thoughts so they made some sort of sense, and post them.

However, like most plans… that stopped happening after Day 1.

After getting basically no sleep the night before, I was dragging a bit by the time the group was up and ready to meet for breakfast. We grabbed a mediocre hotel breakfast, got ourselves together, and headed for the bus.

Two people in our group were leaving earlier that night so they could get on the road Sunday morning. The rest of us were planning to stay until sunrise.

The day was filled with dancing and, once again, being introduced to DJ’s I probably never would have discovered otherwise.

Day 2 is always noticeably more crowded than Day 1, and you can absolutely feel that energy while moving through the crowd. At times, it became a little overwhelming.

At one point during an amazing John Summit set, things suddenly started to feel like too much. I got incredibly warm, started sweating, and my neck felt weirdly heavy.

I sat down, and immediately my group was on top of it.

Fanning me. Making sure I had water. Giving me a shoulder rub. Also recognizing when I just needed to quietly work through whatever was happening.

I was probably only sitting there for about ten minutes, but part of that time I was internally freaking out, trying to quiet the irrational side of my brain that was convinced someone outside our group had slipped something into my water when I wasn’t paying attention.

But knowing I was safe with the people I was with helped tremendously.

Once the moment passed and I was back on my feet dancing again, we came to the conclusion that exhaustion and dehydration were probably the culprits.

Like any good rock star.

I knew going into Day 2 that it was probably going to put me in my feelings a bit, and honestly, that was part of what I wanted.

I wanted to dance things out. Cry things out. Smile, laugh, and exist in a crowd full of people all having their own experiences at the same time.

And that’s exactly what I got.

We danced hard and ended the night with an incredible sunrise set by Above & Beyond — a group that will forever hold a special place in my heart and can still make me cry happy tears when certain songs come on.

There were also a few quotes from that night that I know will live in my brain forever:

“Don’t expect this personality tomorrow.”

And from our friend attending their very first festival:

“What am I supposed to do after this?”

As we got on the bus around 5:15 that morning, we were completely exhausted.

But our souls felt full.

And somewhere out on those dance floors, we each left behind a few things that no longer served us.