Ryann

So normally how this blog works is that I try to take a bunch of snapshots whenever and wherever I'm hanging out in SL and then when I get around to trying to write (which I appreciate is getting ever more infrequently) I'll flick through them to figure out which events and/or people were most interesting or amusing (or both) and write about them.

This time around I found a picture which I'd forgotten I'd even taken.  A picture which just so happens to perfectly capture a significant turning point, not only in my Second Life but also in my Real Life too.  Something which close friends & profile stalkers among you will no doubt already be well aware of.

An innocuous enough snap of myself lounging around on a beanbag chair at Lost & Found one evening, right?  Oh, but what about the cute one on the left I hear you ask?  Well, that would by Ryann Ashdene.   You may have seen her name on my profile.  Next to the word "Partner".

I hadn't realised when I took this picture that, although it was taken very soon after we first met and a fair while before we ultimately took the plunge into partnership,  I had fortuitously managed to capture the exact moment that I realised something very different was going on here.  Something entirely unexpected.  Something I hadn't even thought I was looking for.  Something which, just a few short weeks later, I now can't imagine being without.

For someone who Mericat Ireland has repeatedly decried as "cagey" it might seem surprising that during the relatively short space of time between my previous blog post and this I've somehow managed to go from first meeting directly to partnership.  Do not pass Go.  Do not collect £200.  I guess what I've come to realise is that Second Life, just like Real Life, is always capable of truly surprising you.  Just when you least expect it, someone can come into your life and entirely change it for the better.  If this happens in a virtual world rather than the real world can it still be just as meaningful?  I'd have to vote a resounding "Yes" on that one.

Some people choose to keep SL and RL very separate, indeed I've been accused of doing exactly that myself on more than one occasion (Meri again - she says nice things about me too sometimes though, honest).  Of course this makes sense to one extent or another for many reasons.  I would never, for example, advise blabbing your RL details all over your profile, local chat or in IM to that guy who just sent you an entirely inappropriate photo from his inventory as his opening move.

On the flip-side though, since SL is "only" a virtual world and thus "not real", it can be all too easy to assume that nothing which happens there is real either.  What shouldn't be forgotten is that for all it's virtual trappings and ease of anonymity, SL is still populated by real people.  Real people with real feelings from all over the world, coming together in one place.  When you stop to think about that, it's actually pretty amazing.

The very real friendships I'd found in my first few months in SL, particularly with the crowd at AAi, meant that I was already some way toward this realisation, but it just takes that one person to show you that the lines between Second Life and Real Life are only as solid as you make them yourself.  The right person can erase them entirely.

So sure, be careful out there.  Exercise a certain amount of caution.  Be careful what you tell and to whom.  But don't necessarily limit your expectations, don't dismiss the possibility that SL can be a whole lot more than just a virtual playpen that disappears every time you log off.  If you shut yourself off to the possibilities then who knows.... you might be missing out on something kinda wonderful.