If I had known what I know now, I never would have stepped foot in the Ocala National Forest during the Rainbow Gathering. However, if you ask anyone in OAR about the Rainbow Gathering, all they will tell you is that you should go, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I agree: I have done it once in this lifetime and will NEVER go again. It might have been different if I had decided to go during the day rather than at night. It might have been different if I had probed my fellow club members more rather than trusting their judgments. Instead, I met up with Bevin and Brice and the three of us headed off into the forest without any idea what we were getting ourselves into.
The one thing people told me was to bring something to trade. What does that mean? I still don't really know. I just swept through post-Valentine's Day candy sales and picked up a backpack full of candy. We pulled up to the police checkpoint, allowing them to look into car and check us for drugs (we had none, obviously). Then, as our car was slowly crawling through the first round of campsites, a guy jumped on to the back of our car and asked for a ride up the road. Unsure of what to do or how to say no, Bevin just kept driving. This was when everything went downhill. The police at the next stop pulled us over and searched us. They accused us of having a pipe, which was on the ground outside of our car. I think I was the most panicked, watching the end of my future law career flashing before my eyes. I was certain they were going to arrest us, even though we didn't have any drugs. We were all separated and searched, our car searched as well. To make matters worse, random Rainbow Gatherers kept walking past our car, harassing the cops and telling them that they were violating our constitutional rights. However, because we were cooperative, just a group of dumb college kids that didn't have any drugs or any idea what the Rainbow Gathering consisted of, they let us go. Thus commenced our anthropological study of Rainbow Gatherers.
Leaving our car and heading into the forest was almost too much commitment for me. We were all skittish after our police encounter and venturing into the dark towards fire was not making me feel any less uneasy. We went pretty far into the forest until we came upon the largest fire, where there were a bunch of shirtless men and women dancing around a drum circle. Suffice to say, my shirt stayed on and I did not dance at all. Instead, I sat between Brice and Bevin, too timid to even watch all that was going on around me. We stayed for less than an hour and the others tried to interact some with the Rainbow Gatherers but I kept quiet (which is completely out of character). I think I was too shaken by my near arrest and I was scared by the entire situation. I have since heard that it is better to go during the day because they have large trading circles and less drug addicts. Still, I will never go to the Rainbow Gathering. Ever. Even on a dare.
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