I wrote this piece listening to Tycho’s album “Dive”. You may want to play it while you read this. When I was backpacking across South America on 12 hour bus journey’s I played this on my i-pod Nano while I looked out at the landscape. I remember feeling really grateful for my life and the opportunities I’d been given. I was in-between degrees, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I had faith that curiosity, trying new things and committing to learning would lead me to my destiny. I often come back to this album when I want to tap into that version of Tish. What album brings you back to past versions of yourself?
I got back from Burning Man on September 2, the same day I moved to New York one year earlier. Whether you call it a coincidence or a divine synchronicity (aka what Julia Cameron characterises as "an indication that the universe [or god, or whatever'] is responding positively to active changes you're making in your life") it feels like a huge re-set.
After spending 9 days in Black Rock City at the burn, I came back with more trust, calmness, and peace than I have ever felt. There's so much to say about the experience, but something really simple I want to share first: going offline completely, if you're privileged enough to do so, is the most life-changing and clarifying medicine. I think we overcomplicate why we’re feeling overwhelmed, off, or unclear sometimes. More often than not, I think the answer is simply disconnecting.
The thing about the online world is that it drives us to be more optics and aesthetically driven. We're told we need to look a certain way, be a certain way, do a certain thing in order to be happy and fulfilled—versus actually stopping, sitting still, and asking ourselves what we need and what feels true to us.
It was only when I was still, with no distractions, that everything came up and I was able to see myself in complete clarity.
On a 20-minute voice note (yes, I am that person) I sent to my best friends, I explained that the burn felt like a parallel universe where I was able to fully be with all of my feelings in their purest form.
Burning Man | August 2025
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