What started as a group of six slowly dwindled down to two over the course of the weekend.
Two left early Sunday morning, and two sold their Sunday passes to use the day as recovery time.
That left just me and my bestie for Day 3.
By Sunday morning, I was cooked.
I had skipped Sunday last year and used it as a recovery day before flying home Monday, which honestly helped a lot.
A big part of me wanted to do that again this year.
When you bring someone to their first festival, there’s a feeling that they need to experience everything, and I was having the internal conversation of just grinning and bearing it.
But after very little sleep, I genuinely didn’t know if I had it in me.
My bestie knows me well enough that he immediately told me if I couldn’t do it, he’d go on his own for a bit.
Something he had actually wanted to experience anyway.
At first, I told him to go without me.
But right before he headed up to his room to get ready, I changed my mind.
The FOMO would have been way too real, and honestly, the other option was staying in my room watching reruns of Bravo shows, which I can do at home, or becoming the third wheel on the dinner date the other two had planned.
So I dragged myself upstairs, did a quick wipe down, freshened up, and got as ready as I was going to get.
The winds were rough.
Walking toward the shuttles, my 150-pound self was practically being pushed forward.
Some of the workers were literally holding down the easy-ups to keep them from blowing away.
If the winds get too bad, they’ll shut parts of the festival down.
Last year, a few stages actually closed for a while because of it.
Knowing that while standing there waiting for the shuttle, I was seriously questioning my decision to go.
I’m already not a huge fan of wind.
But once we got there and walked into our first set of the night, a DJ neither of us had seen before, my energy immediately shifted.
I was so glad I came.
With nothing really planned, we spent most of the night bouncing around, exploring more than we had the first two nights, checking out sets that sounded good or DJ’s we had heard of but never seen live before.
We originally said we’d head back around 2am so we could get at least a little sleep before the airport later that morning.
The vibe apparently had other plans.
We ended up staying for another sunrise set and somehow timed leaving exactly like we had on Day 2, getting back to the hotel around 7am.
Which gave us until about 9:45am to get our lives together and make it to the airport.
The walk back to the shuttle was rough.
At that point, I was drained in every possible way… physically, mentally, and emotionally.
I had somehow convinced myself I still had another night to recover before going home and was genuinely upset when I remembered that wasn’t the case.
Back at the hotel, I had to have a serious conversation with myself just to pull it together enough to shower, pack, and get out the door.
Each day brought something completely different.
There honestly wasn’t one day that was better than another.
They were all equally amazing in their own way.
Sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home, I’m exhausted, but smiling ear to ear.
I’m leaving this year with a full heart and some incredible memories.
And those bittersweet memories from last year?
Those are being left in the desert, where they belong
Taking Life with Chances 
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