Ultra

"All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. " ~ Henry Miller

I'm heading to the Ultra Music Festival in Miami tomorrow - Wednesday. I'm super excited... I've never been to Ultra and I've never been to Miami! I literally think this five day solo excursion is making me even more nervous than my whole month solo, on the other side of the world, in New Zealand!

Traveling solo is just hard in and of itself, but then when you're going to a electronica/dance festival over four days where the average age is probably 22 years old it makes me that much more nervy.

But the bottom line is, I love this genre of music. I love everything about it... especially the high, joyful energy of it. So, I'm not going to let anyone (even me!) make me feel like that at my age I shouldn't be there. Not only am I planning to be there, but I'm planning to have one of the craziest, funnest, craziest times of my life! And that's what keeps me feeling young... that I allow myself to do things that are out of my comfort zone, but that I feel fully alive for.

I will be couchsurfing... which I first learned of before I went on my trip to New Zealand and though I didn't do it very much while there, the little I did do, was very interesting. So, needless to say, I will be staying on South Beach in Miami with a stranger! But, hopefully, that stranger feeling won't last for long and it will be a good situation! *crossing fingers*

So, couchsurfing is strange, and different, and a little intimidating... a challenge of sorts, though with the possible rewards of meeting new and varied people, but nothing is intimidating me more than the schedule that I am going to be on for the time I'm in Miami.

I start Thursday (the day before Ultra) at 4:00 PM - 1:30 AM participating in one event, then get to the next event around 2:00 AM - 6:00 AM (though I'll probably leave by 5:00!), sleep a few hours, and then Ultra starts at noon and goes to midnight each of the next three nights. It is one non-stop party and I have been trying my best, over the past month, or so, to get my body to move, this way and that, so that I'm not needing a walker to go from one music stage to another at the event site, Bayfront Park in downtown Miami.

Anyway, I can't believe I'm actually going and, like I said, I have that nervous anticipation of stepping out into that great big world and not having a clue of what comes next...