-=Taryn, Pre-SL®=-
Once upon a time, what seems like an entire lifetime ago (and in a sense, it is!), I was talking to my friend on the phone. My I had known this friend, who I will call Harmony (her SL name) for about 10 or 11 years. We grew up together as teenagers, and we didn't have an easy go of things. Living on the other side of the country from our families (as teens, and young adults), we became each others family. She moved to the US, and I moved to Ontario, and we somehow lost track of each other for a few years. I actively searched for her, thinking she still lived in western Canada. Eventually, I got some contact information from her, from a mutual friend. What an awesome day, when I found her again! Hearing her voice brought back a flood of memories.
We got caught up on each others lives. I was going to college, working full time. She had met a really great guy, and they were living together. She told me she was making money online. I figured she meant surveys or something. I asked for a link, since I have a lot of free time at work to play around online. She explained she was working as a dancer in a strip club - online! Needless to say, I was confused, but interested. Thus began my introduction to the idea of virtual worlds.
I didn't join right away - full time in college, working full time, single mom. It slipped my mind, to be honest. Then, a few months later, I saw something on the news about Second Life. Something clicked, and I realized - I think that's what Harmony was talking about! I went to my computer and googled, downloaded, registered, installed - all that good stuff.
-=Logging in... Second Life may appear frozen=-
I started at Orientation Island. It didn't look like the OI of today, though - those weren't around yet. Go by Orientation Island Public - that's what my OI was like. There were people standing around, but I had no time for people. I had to see what was around! I learned how to fly pretty much right away, and flew around. I saw a sign for help island, went there, skipped through things pretty fast, and found myself at a welcome area. Braunworth.
This is the first place that I really stopped to have a look around. Now, I probably would have gone on flying and running into things, but something stopped me. I was standing in the spot where I had rezzed, and my screen jumped. Someone had walked into me. Then I see in chat.. "Sorry". I was thinking... what? Who said that? I turned around, and there was a person there. Talking to me. Woah! These aren't characters - they're people! It was quite the realization, at the time. We started talking. We walked. Down the road, to Muzik Haus. We clumsily figured out how to dance, with me randomly clicking on everything I saw. We met a guy there, who had a really cool looking avatar. His name was Midnight Wilde, and he was very helpful and patient. I still see him around now again.
My new friend and I kept exploring, finding a beach, a coffee shop, some stores, and some other things. I was afraid to go in the water, because I saw sharks. A girl that was sunning on the beach assured me the sharks wouldn't eat me, and I wouldn't die. I didn't fully trust her, but I swam anyway. I lived. :)
-=Finding Harmony=-
The next day, after school and work, I logged in again. Same the day after that, and that. I wandered around on my own for several weeks. I didn't yet know my RL friend's SL name, so I had no way to find her inworld. I collected freebies, tried out lucky chairs, collected a few dollars here and there from money trees, and met lots of cool people. Finally, I got ahold of my friend by phone, and found her SL name. I contacted her, and we got together. *I* thought I was looking pretty good, with my fancy freebie clothes, and the spikey hair I had made. She had other ideas. She was low on cash, so she called on her friend Melissa, who came shopping with us. We went to X2, a skin store. Melissa transferred over $4000L to me, to buy a skin. I couldn't believe it - for weeks, I'd been collecting $1L at a time from money trees, and this girl I'd never met gives me 4K! I bought a skin, and was blown away by the difference. I looked... real! She gave me money for some hair, but I held onto that for a little while - I'd grown attached to my spikey mesh hair.
From the stores, we proceeded to go surfing. Melissa bought me a surfboard, and the three of us had an awesome time hitting the beach, catching some waves.
-=Club Kryptonite=-
At this point, I was very curious about the strip club Harmony had mentioned several months previous. I asked her to show it to me. By now, she was dating the club owner. She introduced me, and the club became my new hangout. Harmony became co-owner of the club sometime around then, and hired me to dance for them. I did that for a short time, and then they bought a sim together, and the club was moved. Harmony and Rocky got married. For their wedding, I bought them some gift certificates to some cool stores they liked. They were very touched, and offered to rent me some land at cost, right beside their home parcel on their sim. Harmony built me a warehouse (I'm a punker avatar, after all, so what better place to live?). When they broke up, Harmony left SL for awhile. Her ex still lived next to me, and we became good friends. By this time, their club was closed, and I was looking for something to do.
-=Help Islands, Sean=-
I had taken to hanging out at Help Island Public and Orientation Island Public a lot, as well as other welcome areas like Hanja, Ahern, and Braunworth. There was such a cross-section of people from all over SL, I found it a great way to meet people. I wandered into the freebie house on HIP, and met a guy named Sean. What a sweet guy! We chatted for a long while, and he took me to the club where he worked - Club Crobar. He did promotions for them. He showed me some of the stuff he did and I was thinking "Hey! This is WAY cooler than dancing!". He brought me in as his assistant, and we made promo posters together, posted events, etc. I met the club owners, who were very nice, just like he said.
-=Club Crobar=-
At Crobar, I felt welcomed and accepted in a way that I never really had at the old club. Within a few weeks, Sean left SL, and Crobars owner made me promotions manager. I was now planning the events, making posters, posting events online, attending meetings... doing all kinds of stuff! That continued for a few months. In the meantime, Rocky and I had started dating. He came by the club sometimes, but for the most part, he was off doing his own thing (building a midevil themed sim, then a "child friendly" sim for kid avatars). In June, Thalia & Red decided it was time to move on, and they wanted to sell the club. A bunch of us got together to buy it and run it as a group, but people dropped out of the buyers group, and soon it was left to Rocky and I. We bought Crobar in June of 07. For a few months, we ran things together, then in August things went south between Rocky and I, relationship-wise. (A guy named Doc G, who I had met about 6 months earlier at Ahern, had warned me it would happen - but I didn't listen). I bought Rocky out, and now was the sole owner of Crobar. A bit before that, my application to the Second Life Mentor program had been accepted.
Thus ends the story of the club - I ran things for awhile, but got bored with it, and my managers took over. Calleigh, Vanda, Kathy - they were all awesome, and have done a great job running things.
-=Entropy Nikolaidis=-
Back when Rocky and I were still together, and running Crobar , I ran into a guy playing our solo slingo machines at the club. I pulled up a seat beside him and started playing a game as well. We started chatting, and thus was the beginning of a wonderful friendship that continues to this day. Ent, and his RL/SL girlfriend Penny (PrettyPenny) are 2 of the most wonderful people I have come across in either SL or RL. They stood by me and were a great source of support and strength when Rocky & I broke up, they helped me with the club, we talked for hours on SL, MSN and Skype. Entropy became Crobar's inhouse DJ for awhile, playing 5 sets a week. He mixes live, and always plays an amazing set. Currently, their RL schedules don't give them all that much time in SL, so I don't get to talk to them as much as I'd like, but we are still very close. I can tell these two anything, and I generally do :)
-=Help People=-
A few weeks after I joined SL, I discovered the Help People group. At the time, their tags said "Help People VIP". I wanted to help people, too! I joined the group, and soon met the group owner, Brett. What an awesome guy! He gave me a tour of some of his favorite places in SL. He was relatively new himself, at the time, and his dedication and knowledge impressed me. I liked being part of the group - when I needed help, I always had a group IM to ask questions in. I found myself wearing the tag more and more in help areas, trying my best to help others (with my limited knowledge). Often I would stumble, but the more I stuck with it, the better I did.
-=My First Volunteer Party=-
In May of 2007, I got an invite to the Volunteer Appreciation Day party, on the volunteer islands. This was especially exciting, because I wasn't even a mentor yet! I got to party with some of the people I most admired in SL - Doctor Gascoigne, Gwynnie Boffin, and many others. There were also Lindens there (zomg!). After that night, my determination to become a mentor was strenghtened even more. I had applied a few months before, but hadn't yet heard anything.
-=Evilania=-
At Ahern one day, I met a girl named Evilania, wandering around, looking a tad lost. I IM'ed and asked if I could help. We chatted, I answered some questions... and we became good friends. She ended up moving into the parcel next to me on Rockys sim. Rocky was a mentor, and she thought I should be a mentor, too. So, as new as she was, she marched over to Blue Linden's office one day to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that I should be a mentor. I was so touched by that! He advised her that the mentor program wasn't accepting new enrollments at that time, but once it opened up again, he'd keep the recommendation in mind. Sure enough, once apps started being processed again, I was invited to join the group.
-=Mentoring=-
In the summer of 2007, my application to the mentor program was accepted, after a long, long wait. This was a turning point in my SL. I found a focus! There is always so much going on with the mentor program, tons to get involved with. And get involved, I did! After a few months, I became a Mentor Buddy, helping new mentors get aquainted with the program, and helping them to answer questions for other residents. In early '08, I became an Orientation Host, teaching the orientation session to Apprentice Mentors. I started doing translations of resource material on the wiki. I would say my time in SL, right now, can be divided into 4 different areas - 1/4 on Help Island Public, 1/4 in other welcome areas/help islands, 1/4 doing volunteer related stuff (including volunteer parties and office hours), and 1/4 spent with friends/shopping/misc.
About half of the people on my friends list are mentors, and people I have met through the mentor program. (The other half are Lindens... j/k). I have developed so many close friends, met people I would otherwise never have met.
-=My Friend, Doc=-
Early on into my mentorship, I ran into Doctor Gascoigne again. We weren't "friends", although I would have liked to be. We started talking more and more, I offered him friendship one day, and he accepted. I could not have been more happy - I was truly honoured to have him on my friends list. And, he had once declined my friendship offer (when we first met), which made it that much more special when he finally DID accept. Now, we are almost inseparable. We gave each other map rights, and we TP each other around the grid. Anywhere I go, Doc is welcome. I often joke that I spend 90% of my time in SL mentoring, and the other 10% is in IM with Doc. It's probably not far off, except that it may be more than 10% :)
-=Today=-
Well, not today necessarily. But recently. As yesterdays blog post said, I closed down the club. It's time to move on from that.
I have been spending a lot of time, probably even the majority of my time, with 2 people - Doc of course, and Ganesha Xi. Gan and Doc are my best friends. They are also both mentors (Outstanding Mentors, at that - not just in my opinion, but as chosen by the Vteam as well). They are open, honest, caring people who I have a lot of respect for.
It is with a touch of sadness that I get to this point, because it's not only the end of my story to date (granted, there are big parts missing, but my fingers are tired), but it's also coming to the end of how I have known SL to date. I got a second RL job, which means my SL time will be cut back drastically. Its necessary to pay the bills - I'm a single mom, and just bought a house for myself and my son last fall. The credit card bills have been piling up, and I have to get some things taken care of. Once they are paid off, depending on how things go, I may be able to move back to working just one job, and can rejoin SL on a regular basis again. I wont be gone, and I still love each and every one of you as much as I always did. I'm sure I will be seeing you around.