Like a bottle of Budweiser beer, everyone arrives in Second Life with their own “born on” date. If you are like me you probably haven’t given it much thought as you start making your way through this amazing place. But with all the excitement and confusion of getting established here in your own SL, take a moment to celebrate your birthday. Because in so many surprising ways it really is a new birth.
Consider your first few hours in SL. There was so much to take in, try to understand, and adjust to. You had to learn the basics. Where am I? How do you walk around in this place? You mean I can fly? How to I communicate? Dress myself? Where do I get help and advice and protection? All of these are things that every RL newborn is familiar with, and we newbies (yes, I am still one myself) are in fact the babies of the SL community.
So you think being a baby is easy? Consider all of the important things that we SL babies struggle with that real newborns aren’t troubled by at all. How do I get just the right avatar for me? Where will I live? How will I support myself? Where will I find friends? And every one of us could add our own troubling questions to this list.
My own birth went rather smoothly, but still I managed to find creative ways to sow chaos and confusion for myself and others. I learned about SL from a friend who suggested we join together and, being the virtual world addict that I am, it was not long before I accepted the challenge and jumped in with both feet. She had to do some computer surgery first to upgrade her PC to SL standards so she was born a couple of days later. When the blessed event occurred, we made excited plans to meet up in the “orientation area”. It was all down hill from there.
We couldn’t find one another. And when we did my helpful advice on making a smooth transition only seemed to make things less clear. Our avatars were created in different ways. Things that “just happened” for me were complete unknowns to her. And vice versa. We spent days trying to sort out the differences (getting a bit testy over it at times). Only a week later did we realize that there is more than one “portal” into SL life. And we had been born through different ones. All of our differences were not problems at all, just the result of somewhat different orientations. With a little knowledge of how things worked, the problems melted away.
So if you have made it through your first few days, congratulations. Take a moment to savor your accomplishment. Now you’re officially a newbie and your SL is just beginning. But you’ve already achieved much. Being a baby isn’t easy. Remember your birthday and celebrate it proudly.
And to help you along through your SL adolescence, I will be answering some of the important questions you will face in your first few weeks. I can do this because they are the same ones I am facing. Questions about money and jobs. How the heck does dancing work anyway? What cool things are there for me to go do? Over the next few weeks I will be talking with our fellow newbies and passing along their answers to these and many of the other questions that we hesitate to ask the grownups. Meanwhile… Happy Birthday!
