Having lived in Miami for seven years now, I have become somewhat immune to hustle culture. Whether the buy-my-course bro, the valet guy with a drop shipping business on the side, or your friendly neighbor who happens to have a thriving OnlyFans, Miami has become a place where I am no longer surprised by people’s propensity to have odd jobs, nor their desire to desire.
In most places, the desire to desire is rarer than it seems. The funny thing about desire is that, even if you think you want for nothing, even wanting for things to stay the same is, in fact, a desire. Take, for instance, that you have a happy family. It is not a guarantee that you will forever have a happy family if you do not make decisions in ways which perpetuate you maintaining a happy family. Thus, the desire for things to remain the same is as whole a desire as any other.
The difference between Miami and many other places is the pure amount of desire. Desire is in the air the moment you land at the airport. Fake watches on every wrist and gold chains on every neck, the desire to fit in, or stand out, is readily apparent. Desire is on full display here, compared to many other places where people keep their wanting to themselves, on their own time and in their own spaces. Miami is well-equipped to both quench and foster one’s desire.
It took a few years of living here for me to cut through all of the hustle. I can sit here writing this today and feel strongly that I have fostered desires worth having and held back others. Yet, each day I answer the same questions of myself, just as any other does. Seeing billboard after billboard for luxury watches, many that I didn’t know existed before moving here, makes you question who you are without one.
The tax-free income and sunny weather are rarely accompanied by the moral costs of living in this city. There is a very real toll that being constantly trained to question someone’s honesty takes on you after many years. I price the true intentions of each new friend’s motives even though not all deserve such scrutiny. A careful few have passed test after test, whether I wanted to administer them or not. Their desires, as it turns out, were pure. The rising senior who shamelessly asked if I could offer him an internship was simply asking, the same way he probably asked a few hundred others. At least he is showing you what he is seeking on the first swing.
The answer to this all is not to want for less, for taken to its extreme, you cannot want for nothing. Distinguishing what it is that you desire, and watering it accordingly, is a virtue honed over time. To quench or cultivate your desires is another question entirely. The desires worth wanting are those you would still want if no one knew that you wanted them at all.