I’m on vacation right now on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, and have been constantly amused at the life down here. There are of course, the natives to the land, living in million dollar homes while driving Escalades, BMWs, and Mercedes (the really unfortunate part to all this is that even though they have really nice cars, they still can’t park them). Living here they have all the necessities– Wal-mart, multiple grocery stores, a mall, and two Starbucks.
As for those vacationing, I am completely at a lost: what about coming here is a vacation? The non-stop flow of traffic and five minute lights? The sandy beaches, which are incredibly crowded and smell worse than any ocean I’ve encountered? The pool at every resort? The fact that it’s not your Wal-mart here, it’s just Hilton Head’s Wal-mart? Or could it… dare I say it…. be because it’s cool or trendy to be here?
This is not a vacation from life, I’m sorry to say. This is simply life uprooted and replanted. Vacation is getting away from the stresses of everyday like– like going to some small beach off the coast of New England that isn’t very well known or populated so that you can really get away from it all. Where you don’t have to wear your Jimmy Choos or carry around your Louis Vuitton because nobody cares!
While I do suppose that coming to HHI does, by all definitions, fulfill the definition of a vacation, I still don’t understand why people do it. Why do people care so much about doing the “trendy” thing and looking like they’re spending money? You look good to the wrong kind of people and, hey, you just spent a couple G’s on what is essentially a normal week of life for you.
