Well, it might be a bit late making this post after 3.5 years and over 2500 posts, but hey, better late than never.
Growing up in the US, I had several childhood passions, but none were as strong as elevators. Every Saturday, my father and I would drive from the suburbs to the big city to visit a local hotel and ride their elevators up and down (we switched hotels each week). Luckily, my city had some atrium hotels with scenic elevators as well as some tall hotels for longer elevator rides. Back in the day, hotels were less concerned with security and keycarding elevators - though, I'm sure hotel staff found my giddiness a tad odd.
At the same time, my favorite TV shows were The Golden Girls (which caused me to break my arm as I ran back from the bathroom to catch the show returning from a commercial break and tripped over my own feet and fell into the baseboards on the wall) and Great Hotels with Samantha Brown. I loved that show - corny, but it showed so many hotels that at the time felt like I would have to be dreaming to stay in. One of my favorites was the episode on the Westin St. Francis where Samantha spoke on the many different scandals and controversies and toured some magnificent suites. Of course, the kicker was the exterior scenic elevators on the Tower. Luckily, I didn't have to dream and have now stayed there 3 times (it's one of my favorites).
As a child, I pretty much traveled where my parents wanted to go, which meant weekend trips around our state, Santa Fe (which I hated - the hotels were awful, and I don't like art galleries), and California (mostly LA as my mother was convinced she would see celebrities - she did several times). We originally only stayed in Marriott properties as well as independent hotels in New Mexico and Colorado, but my older brother began traveling for work and focusing entirely on SPG. This got my parents into the hotel points and credit card ecosystem, which they are still in today - though not as much as I am, and fueled many nice trips - such as Boston, Disney World, New York City, and even Hawaii (to the sorely-missed St. Regis Princeville).
My brother's travels introduced me to FlyerTalk as he lurked on the site frequently in regards to Starwood. I remember he became an Ambassador when the tier was introduced, but as a very independent person, never found much value in the service. This was also when I began loving the Westin brand - we had many stays in Westins, and I loved the Heavenly Bed (though, my mother always made us take the Heavenly duvet off as they were too thick according to her). Now, I just want more duvets!
At some point, my brother settled down to have a family, but my parents and I continued our yearly trips fueled by their credit card points, even after the merger between Marriott and Starwood. Shortly after the merger, some of my existing mental health struggles flared up while I was in college in regards to travel, and I didn't go on a vacation or stay in a hotel for over 2 years.
Luckily, as I moved towards college graduation, I made the decision to take a solo vacation and cast away the mental blocks that had caused me to say no to hotels. I opened a Bonvoy account, bought a plane ticket to Boston, and had a glorious 4-night stay at the Westin Copley Place. Even when no status, the staff upgraded me to a River View room on the 35th floor, and I loved it. Traveling by myself was so freeing - walking around as much as I wanted, sleeping as much or as little as I wanted, and eating whatever I wanted. Not to mention, going to as many hotels as I wanted.
Of course, the rest is history and well-documented via my posts. COVID came and kept my travels confined to my home state. After vaccination, I began flying again and took a weekend trip each week to a new US city /state (with plenty of repeats). And, starting in 2022, I'm taking advantage of my youth and health to see the world as I had never left the US before 2022. My parents are shocked, but they love living vicariously through my photos and stories on our hour-long video calls each and every day (even from the other side of the world, as my mother says). I still can't get them to come with me as they can't imagine dealing with my habit of switching hotels every night. Plus, I'm still trying to get Mother to realize consistently that Africa isn't a single country with states :-)