May 16th, 2010: Darkandiel Bury

1176 days ago, I joined Second Life, that’s 3 years and 2 months with a few days left over. I joined in February 2007, and wasn’t really sure of what to do or where to go. I saw some really nicely dressed avatars and wondered where they got their nice stuff. I was such a noob, bugging people about how to do stuff, where they got things and so on. I logged out that night and forgot about it.

Cleaning files off my computer one day, I saw that I still had the viewer installed, and I logged in…
I found freebie areas, freebie blogs, and a job. Much like many that need to earn money, I was a stripper/host for about a year or so and had some fun times. Then when my boyfriend joined and I started voice chatting to friends I had made, I became addicted.

Now, it is a place for me to log in and forget my RL problems, help me forget about loved ones that I have lost and mounting bills that need paying. It lets me explore all sides of myself, helps me to create, and boost my lagging confidence. Sometimes I wish RL was as simple as SL. No illness, no wars, no famine, just a place where like-minded people can connect or debate. It is now an important part of my life.

So for all that I’m very glad I didn’t give up on Second Life all those 3 years ago, and so glad I gave it a second chance.

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Darkandiel Bury hails from Ireland, is 27 and has been married since September 2009. Trained as a hairdresser since she was 16 and fully qualified at 20, but had her dreams crushed at 22 and left it forever. Instead she builds hair for her store DarkerSide, sings, dances, acts, works with the costume department doing hair with her local Musical Society, and dreams of winning the lotto!