A New Beginning

I first joined Second Life back in December 2007, but I still remember quite a bit about those early days. I can still recall standing in an info hub and watching all the chatter fill my screen. There were still SL Mentors back then, and the one there that day was standing on some steps, answering questions. She was wearing a long, flowing gown and had a pair of white angel wings. I was very impressed by her avatar.

Of course I did the whole freebie experience, exploring malls and shops, going through the various tragic looks that most noobs endure. There were still camping chairs back then, as well as money trees and those survey terminals that would give you a few Lindens. I had also made a friend along the way. A transgender guy named Sal, who has since undergone a sex change operation in real life and changed his avatar to a female named Sally. I remember seeing an outfit I fell in love with that cost 100L. I saved up for weeks, using camping chairs and money trees until I had enough to buy it. Sal came along to witness my first real purchase, and it was an exciting moment.

Interestingly, I still have Sal on my friends list to this day, and often see her online. We never talk anymore, but we each know the other is still out there. I don’t think we’ll ever remove each other from our friends list, either. It’s sort of like a silent understanding, and I think that’s kind of neat.

It’s been years since I had that full noobie experience. I believe that when we first join SL, we are set on a path by our early experiences and the people we meet. My path led me to Podcast Island, where I met people like Radar Masukami of SL Under The Radar podcast, Keeme Brown of Keemecast, and many others.  The first Blogger I met was Crap Mariner. These initial meetings are what led me to become part of the blogger and podcaster community.

I started my first blog really early, just a few days into SL. My original blog was over on Live Journal. Amazingly, it still exists, and it’s so incredible to be able to go back and relive some of those initial reactions and discoveries. Most of them I had completely forgotten about, but I am extremely happy that I documented those early days so well. As I go back and read the entries and see the pictures, it all comes back to me so clearly.

So, I got to wondering- what if I hadn’t gone to Podcast Island or Edloe? If I had not met any of those people, where would I be right now? What community would I be a part of, and what would my life in SL look like? This is what gave me the idea to start a new blog project, which as of yet is still unnamed.

Last night, I created a new account and logged into that initial starting area- and stayed there. My objective for this project is to forge a new path on this avatar based entirely on the people I meet. I’ll step outside of my comfort zone and talk to everyone I encounter, and see what sorts of friendships I make, and what sort of places they end up sending me to. I am not allowing myself to rely on previous experience, or cheat by searching out places that someone truly new to Second Life wouldn’t know about yet. If that means I have to trot around with no AO and in the default skin for months, so be it. I’ll be documenting my journey along the way, and finding out what other sorts of lives and people are out there on the Grid that I wouldn’t otherwise encounter through my own circle of friends.

It should be quite an adventure, so be sure to follow this blog to see where it leads.

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~ by Nika Dreamscape on November 14, 2013.