guest post: juelaine

meet juelaine. she's a half hawaiian vegetarian and one of my best friends, as mentioned here. she grew up in vegas and last summer she showed me what it's like to be in vegas without being all touristy. and today she's going to share her take on life in sin city. enjoy!

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What is the city but the people?  ~William Shakespeare

Whatever you want to call it…Las Vegas, Nevada. Sin City. Vegas. Party Central. City of Lights… I call it HOME. When I hear "Vegas," I don’t think of "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" like everyone else does. I think of home, my family, my safe haven. It’s what is comfortable to me and what I love. I absolutely LOVE the city. I really enjoy living in a place that everyone is envious of. 

I was born in Seattle and when I was 9 I moved to Vegas. It's where I grew up. I live away from the strip so it’s away from all the craziness, yet still close enough. The strip keeps things interesting when we are super bored. We just go and people watch. The tourists who don’t know how to control their liquid consumption, they are the best to watch. Out where I live is kind of like a small town inside a big city. That’s how Vegas is broken up. It’s kind of confusing… but it makes sense if you don’t think about it. 

We have to be kind of creative to have fun. So we’ll hike a mountain, play fugitive, or my personal favorite… BOBA. Our boba game is all about getting a great smoothie from China Town with black balls (aka. boba) in it, then driving around and shooting people with those lovely black balls. For a visual...

It’s something everyone should probably experience sometime in their life. Yes, it sounds a little inhumane… but it’s so fun that it justifies it so you don’t feel too bad. It’s things like this I feel like you don’t experience anywhere else. I have a special love for the city. I love how busy it is. I love how aware it makes me of what is happening in the world. I have learned so much about life and myself by living in Vegas and going to high school there. I think there are people that are meant to be from small towns, and there are people who are meant to be from a city. I am definitely a city girl. Driving into Vegas at night and seeing the millions of lights gives me chills all over. Home is where the heart is, eh? Well my heart rests in VEGAS.





(p.s. for more boba magic, read up here)