Recently I stayed at a fancy hotel for a couples days. From the outside it looked lovely, beautiful architecture, valet parking expensive art etc. I’ve walked passed this place for close to twenty years. I looked it with curiosity like the narrator of The Great Gatsby in the exposition. Being a service industry prole I showed up with a full backpack paying with my prepaid credit card. I thought this would make me happy.

So I get up to the elevator which can only be activated by inserting my room key with the sound of Spanish Guitar playing lightly over the speakers. I enter the room and I have to say it was okay. For four hundred dollars in two days it was fine. There were other hotels I could’ve stayed at for cheaper but I’m reaching for the Air Jordans. To be fair you’re not just paying for the room. I had access to a country club, lounge and room service. Yes room service, growing up poor this sounded crazy. I can make a phone call and someone sends me food off at restaurant menu to my door. How dope is that.

It wasn’t the hotel’s fault but I wasn’t happy. It was a Nor’ Easter with thirty mile per hour winds and high tide was randomly flooding the streets. Also I was alone and that’s one thing but I felt lonely. Watching TV, hating what the culture has become with no one to share it with. Maybe it was a phone conversation that reminded me of this. Being alone I’ve embraced much of my life. Room service was awesome though. Like I said before I wasn’t happy which leads me to believe I wasn’t alone in this feeling. Maybe millions of people across the globe were in fancy hotels with all their whims catered to but still depressed. As I would look in from the outside finishing my job somewhere I’d think everyone is happy on the other side of those doors.

I look at the hotel facade as a metaphor for other aspects of life. It’s the Facebook profile of the happy family with the successful lifestyle. It’s the accomplishment of winning but not really getting what you need. It’s all bullshit. This may sound completely depressing at first but in a way its liberating. The lives of our heroes and people “living their best life” are just as sad as yours when you take a wrecking ball to the facade.

So to whoever reads this enjoy your life. Don’t strain yourself reaching for the Air Jordans when you’ll be just as comfy in a pair of sandals. If we are lucky we get eighty years. After that dead forever. So why worry about other peoples success when you could make this an amazing adventure.