my take on it

Las Vegas is both fun and depressing.

Everybody loves a good time and what place better to do it than Vegas where you can gamble, party, and drink 24/7? Just lost 10 pounds? Great! Go to Vegas and show off that body because there is no place else on Earth where it is acceptable to be scandalous just because it's Tuesday. Believe me, I enjoy this as much as the next person.

What irks me is the "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" mentality. It's too temporary and too lenient on the idea of being somebody and acting a certain way you normally would not. I am all for expanding your horizons and thinking outside of the box but not when it entails being embarrassed about your actions. Vegas promotes the theme of "when in Rome..." and people buy into that. It's easy to excuse disgraceful behavior when you can dismiss it as part of being the "Vegas experience."

I will admit to having fallen in line with these beliefs. I have made weekend trips to Vegas to escape the sometimes mundane, sometimes dramatic reality of my life. It sounds like a fail-proof plan: take a weekend getaway, forget your problems, and take part in a weekend of debauchery and fun under the premise that it's temporary and that no one will ever find out about the events. Unfortunately, at the end of that entertaining weekend, you are left with the cold, desperate pangs of reality. Like Vegas, the fun and outrageous occurrences of the weekend are fleeting. This makes returning to the "real world" on Monday an even more sobering moment. Frankly, it's depressing.

Upon further examination of the Vegas "incidences," you find yourself incredibly grateful that no one will ever find out about them. To what purpose did these things serve? It is easy to be somebody different when there are little to no consequences for your actions and words. Does this make you feel like a better, more empowered person?

My take on it is that while most people look back at Vegas excursions as fun and exciting trips, it leaves much to be desired. There are no real connections, no truths to be revealed in a city designed for temporary release. What it does lead to is a brighter spotlight on the issues you were so desperate to escape.