I was eight years old the first time I saw Las Vegas. My dad is a buyer for a clothing store and he goes to Las Vegas for apparel conventions. Every other year, my mom, Sandra, would drive me and my little brother, Cassus, out to meet him and we'd have a family vacation.
It was three hours from L.A. to Las Vegas. That's a long time for a kid and on the first trip, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the first thing I saw was the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. There are lots of signs along the freeway telling you when you have entered a new city. But this one was different. It was red, white, blue, orange, and green. It made you feel like you were entering a magical land. You wondered what was coming up next.
Right after that came the big casinos. I remember seeing the MGM Grand and M&M World, where you could buy M&M candies in any color you could imagine. I bought all the tropical colors.
Las Vegas has anything that you can ever imagine. There are roller coasters, shows, world-renowned chefs, and famous wedding chapels. And at the Bellagio we have a fine arts gallery; there's a Van Gogh exhibit there now.
Las Vegas is like a fantasy world. You don't have to be a nine-to-five person when you're on vacation here. You can be free. You're leaving your problems behind. You're leaving reality behind.
When I graduate, I hope to get a management job at one of the big hotels on the Strip. And if I do, I want to try to give vacationers that same sense of wonder that I experienced. But the hotel has to provide good service for them to experience the magic. If the service is bad, that's what they'll remember. And if the service is bad, they won't want to come back. For that reason, it's important to train employees very well.
Right now I've got an internship at the Bellagio. The internship reinforces what I've learned in the Hotel College. At the Bellagio, I go from job to job shadowing the professionals who work there. I've seen a lot of the things that go into good service that the public never sees. Valets follow a series of procedures to make sure your car isn't damaged, for example. It's easy to take jobs like the bell desk or valet service for granted.
You have to remember that actions speak louder than words. Today a bride came to Las Vegas to get married. But she didn't have time to check in at the Bellagio, pick up her gown, and still make it to the wedding chapel on time. So the hotel staff picked up her gown and met her at the chapel with the gown and her room keys. Working at the Bellagio has been an eye opener. I would love to work there.
I've lived in Las Vegas for five years, and I'm still amazed that I get to live here. Los Angeles has big buildings, but they're not bright like they are here. I can still remember seeing those lights when we would drive into Las Vegas when I was a child. I never get sick of the bright lights — never.
