by Omega Red
"Come on O don't be a pussy!!!"
"Radical Inclusion Omega!!!"
"Come on Omega, remember Safety 3rd!!!"
"Fine!!! You assholes wanna see me die, bust out your cameras I want my death on YouTube!!!"
I climbed the tower to the zip-line trying like hell to hide the fact that I have a paralyzing fear of hights and was visibly shaking. All the while being heckled by campmates from below. People who 3 days ago were internet strangers but who had somehow in 72 hours become closer than family. I climbed on the seat of the zip-line and stared down at my impending doom.
"You ready?" the gentleman atop the tower asked. A man my age in purple parachute pants, a leather vest and a gaudily decorated top hat.
"No." I replied and jumped off the tower.
Sailing through the air along the zip-line in my urban cammo pants with leopard print cape flying behind me I realized I couldn't even recognize myself anymore. I wasn't that guy who 10 months ago filled his nights with beer, laying on the floor sobbing, more beer, and drunken midnight calls to an ex girlfriend who had long since moved on. I had become something else... I had become Omega.
It was a complete transformation. I now spent my time making trinkets to give to total strangers, giggling to myself as I dreamed up new pranks to take to the burn, trolling on the internet burner pages, being trolled on the internet burner pages, and working on costume pieces that were completely out of place in the default world. It takes all year to prepare for something that is over in one week.
My friends and coworkers back home would never understand what happens out there in the dust. It's not just a party or fuckfest, it has nothing to do with that but for some reason that's what everyone seems to think. I was part of a family and we pushed each other out of our own individual comfort zones to experience things that could never happen in our real world lives. We all get a little crazy but at the same time take care of each other so as to not completely lose touch with reality. It was heaven.
As I came to the end of the zip-line and fell onto the playa shaking I realized that Burning Man had saved my life. It had given me something to live for when for so long I had wandered around, fog in my eyes, a zombie just passing time between drunken blackouts.
My new family ran over to me laughing and hauled me up, knocking the dust from my cape and returning my hat and thermos.
"You did it Omega!!! No YouTube video this time!!!"
"You guys are assholes," I said smiling as we all exchanged hugs. "Lets go back to camp, I need another drink."
We wandered off together laughing and carrying on, vaguely in the direction of camp. Stopping occasionally to hug a stranger here and there. The afternoon sun was just slipping behind the mountains and everyone was getting ready for the night ahead. I coughed on the playa dust kicked up by a passing art car and thought to myself, "I'm Home."
See you at the trash fence for Daft Punk in 2016, in case you haven't heard Burning Man 2015 has been cancelled
.-Omega Red
