Lifestyle

The Emotional Stages Of A Weekend Partying In Vegas

by Blair Thill

There are many, many places you and your friends could take a weekend trip to in this great country of ours.

You could lie on the beach in Florida. You could take in awesome live music in New Orleans. You could soak up a ton of culture in New York.

But here's the thing: You could go to one destination to do one thing, or you could go to Las Vegas. Sin City. The Strip. You could go there and do everything those other cities have to offer — and more — all in one weekend.

Vegas is the perfect party weekend for you and your squad. You can stay in a fancy hotel, work on your tan, get bottle service, see live entertainment and come back with the craziest stories. All from just one city.

But fair warning: Vegas is not for the faint of heart. It comes with an emotional rollercoaster that you have to be prepared for. These are the emotional stages of a weekend partying in Vegas.

Stage One: Anticipation

When you're in the car or plane to Vegas, you're a ball of nervous energy.

You've heard so much about the craziness of the Strip and the shenanigans that are bound to happen. You just want to get there. You just want to live it up in Sin City.

The anticipation is almost too much to stand. You start to wonder if you're putting too many elevated expectations on the weekend. Will the trip match the hype?

Of course it will. You know it will.

You just need to get there, throw your bags in your hotel room and party.

Stage Two: Exhilaration

Once you've checked into your hotel and have changed into something sparkly and befitting of the lights on the Strip, you are out on the town.

Your goal? To take in as many of the attractions in one night as is humanly possible.

You pass Paris, Rome, Egypt and New York when you're walking down the main drag. Then, you try your hand at the roulette table. THEN, you watch a magic act that is blowing your mind because you can't figure out just how he made that 747 disappear.

By the time midnight rolls around, you're in full-on party mode. You're holding tight to a SoBe Elixir Midnight Mojito, sipping that blackberry and mint flavor, while dancing amongst a stream of confetti. But that isn't even the end of that first day. You're going to be drinking those Midnight Mojitos until 3 am.

You're in Vegas, after all. Why would you go to bed before the sun comes up?

Stage Three: Exhaustion

Okay, so just MAYBE you did TOO MUCH on your first day in Vegas. Maybe you indulged in the party just a little too hard, as evidenced by the fact that it's past noon and you still haven't emerged from your bed.

But that's totally fine, y'all!

You left everything you had on the dance floor the night before, and now you deserve a bit of rest. The key is merely transferring that rest from your hotel room to the hotel pool. Grab a chaise lounge by the SLS Hotel pool, put on some giant sunglasses and get some sun while you relax and recuperate.

Bonus: Vegas hotel pools are great for people watching. You'll be just as entertained by the characters around you as you were by the magic show you saw the night before.

Stage Four: Resilience

You've lounged at the pool and fully recharged your batteries. You head out for a five-star meal, and after all that delicious food has been digested you finally feel ready to continue partying.

You learned your lesson the night before, and while you're still celebrating just as hard, you're doing it at a slower pace.

This night of resilience is probably when you'll have your best memories from a trip. Why? Because you aren't focused on the high of arriving in Sin City. You're more strategic about your fun. You're trading in that bottle service for something spicier with the SoBe Elixir En Fuego, savoring that jalapeno-lime taste.

You're going to find a way to sneak into that VIP party by befriending real-life showgirls. You're going to rent a Ferrari for the night and race it through the desert for an hour. You're going to be the witness at a last-minute wedding of two strangers that's officiated by an Elvis impersonator.

Basically: You're going to be a boss for the night.

Stage Five: Melancholy

It's your last day. The depression is setting in.

You start to panic that you didn't do everything you wanted to do. Maybe you were the one who should have been married by that Elvis impersonator last night!

But then you breathe and realize that you were in total #YOLO mode the whole time. The weekend went exactly how it was supposed to ­— it was spontaneous and once-in-a-lifetime. Any more fun than this and you might not have gone back to your real life.

You hit the buffet one last time before heading to the airport. You're sad, but then you remember a very important fact.

Vegas isn't going anywhere. It'll be there probably as long as time. All you need to do is save enough money to go back and do it all over again.

SoBe

Partying in Vegas is an amazing, emotional rollercoaster ride you never want to get off. SoBe is celebrating their 21st birthday with two new flavors, the SoBe Elixir Midnight Mojito and the SoBe Elixir En Fuego, and a huge bash in Las Vegas. Enter the sweepstakes here for your chance to win a vacation to Vegas to party with SoBe in style. #SoBeNotSorry