Ever wonder what it would feel like to be the first to discover something? To say, "I was the first person to see, smell, hear, taste, or use this particular thing"? "The Loss of the Creature" by Walker Percy tells readers we give up our sovereignty over our experiences because we allow other factors to effect how we perceive that experience. An experience when I “loss sovereignty” was the time I took a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada to visit relatives. Being that I have never been to Las Vegas, I relied on my family to give us the tour of their city. When my family could not get away from their lives, we went out on our own. Between the tour guide and venturing out for ourselves, we were able to see the tourist attractions as well as some things that happens behind the bright lights and street performers.

My mom took the whole family to Las Vegas to see family we have not seen in a very long time. We got to stay there for a whole week, and it is one of the best trips I have been on so far. This is the first trip I took with my whole family so I was really excited, and could not wait to see what the other side of the country looked like. The first day we arrived, we were struck by the heat and humidity as soon as we got off the plane. My great-grandmother was there to greet us, but it was somewhat awkward because I did not remember my great-grandmother. I was a baby the first time we met, but after being introduced, I found that my grandmother (Gigi is what we called her) was a cool grandmother; I guess it came with living in Las Vegas. We eventually got a rental car and made our way to the hotel. After settling in, we made our way over to my Gigi’s house. The view from the veranda was amazing and my family was super funny. We stayed for dinner and afterwards we went swimming. We stayed a little while longer and got to see a very beautiful sunset. It was amazing with the mountains and the desert on the horizon. We left with the promise my Gigi showing us around the city tomorrow.

Gigi met us at the hotel and she took us to the strip. We went everywhere. We got to see the M&M museum as well as the natural science museum. We went to the movies and amusement park. We had a cookout over at my Gigi's place where we had a blast meeting new family members in addition to reintroducing old members. All of this over the course of the week, and it seemed like it was too short and I wanted to see everything. We went to someplace new everyday, I did not know what to expect and each day we stayed out till I zonked. The food and sights were new sensations to me and I got to experience the differences in culture from the east to the west. For example, there was a day where it rained all day, it was a downpour and it was cold, yet when my Gigi came to get us she was wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts. See when look up Las Vegas they don't show you the days where the sun in not out and the weather is not perfect.

Walker Percy says that "seeing the Grand Canyon, the thing as it is, has been appropriated by the symbolic complex which has already been formed in the sightseer's mind." This symbolic complex is what causes us to already have an expectation to what we see before we see it. Las Vegas was my "Grand Canyon" and although it was my first time visiting and seeing the sight for myself Las Vegas is a well known place that reputation has reached everywhere. I was influenced by all the movies that featured Las Vegas as a background. My favorite TV shows was set in the deserts that surrounded Las Vegas. Even the post cards of the strip that was sent to the house from relatives or friends gave me some preconception of what Las Vegas really was, at least as far as the night life. See as a twelve year old my siblings and I were not allowed to actually see the night life much as least not like the post cards pictured it as such. So I had to make due with what I did see. I like the balloons that was set up at every door entrance. The other families making there way down the strip off to find the next adventure. i got to see what real life in Vegas was about the day we arrived.

So was my view of Las Vegas shifted. Yes, I was expecting to have the fun like the people in the pictures who had a drink in there hands, with the lights dancing around them, and they with their friends all around having a great time. I did expect that I was too young to get into the clubs or that I could not have an alcoholic drink. I wasn't even upset to find out that my curfew was at 8 p.m. I was hooked on the fun that Las Vegas emulated and I wanted to enjoy that with my family. I remember the famous saying that represents Las Vegas on the postcard, "What happens in Vegas, Stay in Vegas." I was expecting to be outside of the hotel room enjoying the vacation and the relatives until all the fun caused me to just collapse just like the movies and tv and postcards implied you would.

Instead of the night life I was expecting, I think I got something better and more appropriate for my age and mindset at that time. I got to see what Las Vegas was like of the "beaten track." I saw Las Vegas in the daylight hours. Where the music from the clubs is not so loud and you have street performers on every corner. People who came to have more fun with their families than trying to find the most popular club. I saw kids having the best time of lives in the amusement parks, aquarium, and museums. Percy says the loss of the creature is losing the ability to see something in its original form. What is original? Is it not original that it was my first time to visit Las Vegas. That if I was to visit Las Vegas again and compare the two would my first visit not be the original? I think that a place that was "originally" to thrive on the projection of preconceived notions is original. If I had not seen the movies, or TV shows, or postcards I do not think my experience would have changed. I think those preconceptions and loss of sovereignty didn't change my view of Las Vegas because advertisements of the city are not what I experienced, and even if I visited when I was older not one situation or circumstance happens the same every time and something is likely to change so I believe that while the technicality of Percy's work is accurate, the optimistic and the dreamer in me says that every experience is out own and therefore original.