It's festival season, and all the regular festival goers on your timeline won't let you forget it. Your feed is flooded with photos of girls in trendy clothes, flower crowns and paint on their faces, holding up peace signs and appearing to be having the time of their life. Festivals are becoming "trendy," unfortunately, and more about the drugs and alcohol than the fashion and good times. Is there more to music festivals than the hype? Absolutely.

After attending Firefly Music Festival all the way in Dover, Delaware this past June (along with the other 90-something-thousand people who attended), I had an epiphany as I laid in the grass amongst the stars, colored light beams and forest surrounding me, Mumford & Sons captivating the crowd. Every person should experience this at least once in their lifetime.

1. For the essential bonding on the road trip with your group.

As humans, we crave closeness and a loving community. It's nearly impossible to not get to know the people you are spending sometimes hours with on a road trip. Not to mention you are often physically close, crammed in a car while making the trek.

2. You get to unplug.

You're most likely old-school camping, which means electricity is limited and you're not staring at a screen as often as you might at home. Instead, you are creating more meaningful bonds and deeper conversations. You get to take in every part of every moment, not to mention that the culture of people music festivals often attract are worth getting to know. In fact, my friend and I had a brilliant idea to tie-dye a sheet, bring some markers and talk to strangers. Yeah, crazy, I know. We actually started conversations with people we didn't know. We went up to people we'd never seen before, would never see again, and we asked them questions that mattered. After each conversation, we asked them to come sign our tapestry with something they wanted to do before they died, then write their name. It's proven that you are more likely to accomplish something if you write it down, so I was inspired by that simple thought, to not only try to hold these strangers accountable to their dreams but also get to know who they are deep down for the few minutes they were a part of my life.

I met a 48-year-old woman named Jill who wants to crowd surf. I met a 22-year-old girl named Mikayla who simply wants to find out who she really is before she dies. Shelly wants to march on Washington for gay rights. A man named Will wants to run for President. Nina wants to save a life. Max wanted to find his father. Countless people want to skydive. Travel to Europe. Make a difference in the world--the list goes on and on. I learned more about these people in three minutes than I have learned about some of the friends I've had in my life for five years or more. What I love about festivals is that they make you curious about the people around you, which sparks meaningful conversation.

3. You learn basic survival skills.

Because you're camping, you learn more about your body and what it takes to survive a few days without the ease of a clean, accessible kitchen, bathroom, bed, running water, and so forth. You really begin to use your creativity and problem-solving skills when you only have a grill to cook on, or when it begins to rain and your campsite becomes submerged.

4. The types of people you encounter are incredible.

I mentioned above how awesome some of the conversations you have are, but what's more awesome is the people themselves. It's truly incredible how you feed off of each other's energy. There are so many people from all different walks of life, all different cultures, religions, ethnicities, financial backgrounds, and everyone is coming together because of one common thread: the music. People are so open, accepting and non-judgmental. You are free to express yourself in the most creative of ways, whether that is through your clothing, dancing, hooping, etc. Everyone deserves to experience an environment where you feel 100 percent comfortable and 100 percent free to be exactly who you are without fear of judgment.

5. The music is raw.

Everyone is there for the music. And there's something about the environment that creates a really spiritual, often emotional experience, and the artists definitely pick up on it too. Every time you have an opportunity to see an artist live, you will always feel more than when you listen to them on YouTube or on the radio. You realize that the songs were written from experiences and those artists that you idolize are real people with real feelings and real thoughts and emotions. While I was standing only a few rows from Florence and the Machine, she introduced her songs by explaining the things she was feeling when she wrote them, the state her life was in. She encouraged us to listen to the words she was singing and take the positive energy she was pouring into us and spread it out into the small corners of the world that we had each traveled from. It was incredibly inspiring. My favorite band, The 1975, performed, and I personally was in tears before the show even started. I was only three rows from Matty Healy when his voice began to shake with emotion as he sung about his struggle in finding Jesus Christ in his song "If I Believe You." It's an experience you simply cannot explain. The emotion of the performer is felt deeply by anyone who witnesses the performance live.

At the end of the day, your experience at a music festival is your own. It's emotional, it's spiritual, it's freeing and it welcomes growth. It's indescribable and it's your own. If you've never been to a festival before, give it a try. You deserve the experience.