My Trip to Las Vegas

Las Vegas. The city of entertainment. The oasis of excitement in the doldrums of life. When it comes to reputations, Las Vegas has one comparable to those of New York or L.A.. Glamour! Fun! The city of guilty pleasures! If you're looking for stimulation, whether it's entertainment, sex, drugs, or alcohol, Las Vegas is the place for you.

Las Vegas exists to make the old feel young, the poor feel rich, and for everyone to live without responsibility all while spending vast amounts of money.

At night, the city lights up, and it's a world into itself. Here, you can see sights such as the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, olde english castles, and pirate ships within walking distance of one another. People fill the streets, staggering drunkenly or clutching their shopping bags; leading children or handing out flyers to strip clubs. Musical fountains and neon lights, Gucci and Prada. If this is the life, why does it feel so empty?

Realization comes with morning. In the sunlight, everything comes into the open. The streets are empty except for the homeless, and you see the city for what it is: two streets out in the desert. Pathetic pieces of leftover pornography litter the desolate pavement, and the glamour, it's gone. Wander the streets, and you find there's nothing worth doing. Sure, each grand hotel looks unique and has personality, but that personality stops at the lobby. They're all stuffed with the same things -the same gambling machines, the same expensive restaurants and shops and bars. Not that there's anything wrong with those things. I'm simply making the point that differences don't extend past the architecture.

Even with this awareness, I was surprised by how small Vegas was from the air as I flew out. Especially in comparison with nearby rock formations, this little patch of humanity seems futile and dead. Maybe it's because Vegas is where people go to escape from life, and if it were full of life, it wouldn't be much of an escape. In the Nevada desert, there is the bright red of the ground, the brown and white of snow-capped mountains, the migration of clouds. There is dignity, and patience, and richness of color. There is no waste, no excess. No thrown away flyers or grass forced green by the blood of the Colorado River.

I'm not saying lifelessness is a feature of cities. No. Cites such as San Francisco, New York, or Chicago have a history and a culture grown by the lives of people living there. Grown. Through life. Organically, with no fertilizers required. Las Vegas is a simulation of life with none of the fulfillment, dignity, or class.

Sorry, Las Vegas, but I prefer my alcohol with food, friends, and celebration. I prefer my sex with the one I love. I prefer my drugs only when I'm sick, and sometimes not even then. And as for entertainment, it's not Cirque du Soleil, but I can make do with Netflix. Do you understand, Las Vegas? The life I live is worth more than anything you can offer, and more than anything money can buy.