I stumbled on to SL a couple of years ago by reading about it in business magazines and online articles. Because I was working for a global company in the training department, I thought it might be a fun, cheap way to deliver lectures/discussions world-wide without incurring the travel costs.
It didn’t take to long to get caught up in the social side of SL. Chatting with people from all over the world was fantastic. And there were some really creative islands, like the one devoted to replicating Van Gogh paintings in 3-D.
One night, I logged in, and the landmark server must have been down, as my avatar got plopped down in the middle of a public park. There, sitting on a bench was a balding male avatar wearing a dunce cap and Groucho Marx slippers. After a quick chat, it was off to a favorite club
When logging in the next night, I again found myself in the same park, and again, there was Rew. It didn’t take long to be friends, and we exchanged e-mails before the Christmas holiday since he’d be staying at his parents’ caravan, and they only had dial-up connection. 2 months later and we were web-camming, and 6 months after the initial meeting in SL, we met in RL. It’s now been 2½ years, and we are engaged.
We’ve both cancelled our accounts. Rew was bored with it, and I could no longer log in due to computer issues. We are both still in touch with a couple of SL friends, which is probably the best take-away from the experience. And we plan to rename the house “Mauve” after the island with the park where we met.