Should I go to the burn this year?

[atomosk]

I have kind of a problem. I've been on the fence about going to burning man this year in general. This would be my 12th year and the ticket prices certainly are steep at the moment. I had the best burn of my life last year, but have also had terrible years out there.

I have just been dumped by my girlfriend of two years and am completely devastated. It's so hard to say if I should go to burning man or an alternative vacation, like visiting my brother in Oregon with my father. I don't really know how I feel about either option right now. I don't think I'm capable of thinking clearly enough to reasonably predict what my experience will be like, let alone if it'll be worth the cost.

I wonder if anyone else has been in a similar experience, going to burning man immediately after a bad breakup. I'm open to advice.

Thanks,

[BBadger]

Save your money and go some other year.

[Savannah]

atomosk, what kind of influence does your family have on you? Are they calming and grounding? Are you close? If so, I'd go for the sure bet and hang with them. Burning Man is just hard enough to accomplish, and expensive enough--and possibly full of sufficient emotional minefields, especially if you attended with your former girl--that if you know from past experience that your Burn could go "either way"--and you're feeling really vulnerable--it might be Too Much. I admit I've never attended when I was "on the fence" about it. I just stayed home if I wasn't sure.

It's hard enough to get things together when you're excited about it. It sounds even more stressful to go if you're not even sure you want to go.

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time.

[atomosk]

Hmm. Figured there'd be more anecdotes to peruse whilst making my decision. I suppose Burning Man can become a very emotionally stressful experience. Has anyone had a great time at the burn after a breakup?

I think I'll not go anyhow. Thanks to those who replied.

[Eric]

I suppose Burning Man can become a very emotionally stressful experience.

It's a guaranteed emotionally stressful experience- almost everybody has a melt-down at some point during the week, no matter how long they've been going. It's an environment that's stressful on your body to begin with, add lack of sleep and, in your case, sadness coupled with seeing lots of other people going around nuzzling it would probably happen a lot to you.

Not going is a good decision for this year.

[atomosk]

Thanks Eric. The decision has been cemented. The ticket has been sold (took all of 3 minutes). A shoebox is being produced for a temple offering I'll make next year, when I can pretend to have some perspective on the whole thing.

[trilobyte]

Sounds like you made the right decision for you. My girlfriend and I took a couple years off recently, and honestly I think it served to renew our excitement and joy for the event. Instead of putting ourselves in the position where we felt we were going out of a sense of duty or obligation or just going through the motions because it's what you do if you're a burner, we went on a couple different adventures off the beaten path and enjoyed having the break. We'd been planning to come back for this year since before the last burn, and for us everything has worked out really well.

[bluesbob]

No...don't go.