Ringing in the new year in Las Vegas with tens and thousands of others, I counted down to 2012 excited to see where the next 12 months would take me. Little did I know that it would take me back to Vegas nine times in 8 months.

I jokingly made a goal to go to Vegas once a month for the entire year, and when the clock strikes midnight tonight, I will be two trips short of the goal. Impressive for a gal that had only been to Vegas a handful of times in the last thirty-plus years.

The first question people usually ask me is, “Why do you love Vegas so much??” It’s not that I love gambling, though my game is Blackjack. And it’s not the wild partying and debauchery, although I’ve had quite a few crazy tales that shall remain locked safely in the vaults of Vegas memories. It’s not the shopping, food, lights, or sounds. I think what I love about Vegas encompasses all of that, but what I absolutely love about Vegas is the freedom. People are there to have fun, and there are NO JUDGEMENTS. Living much of my life under the tyranny of rules and the critical judgments of the people I surrounded myself with, I cowered and conformed to what I thought would make me a better person and make people like and accept me. Vegas is the polar opposite of everything I grew up trying to live up to and found fake and empty.

It’s weird to think that a place dubbed “Sin City” can be one of the most integral parts of my learning about who I am and how to be me in the last 15 months. And I can almost hear some of the people from my past tsk-ing with harsh condemnation now…