BBBC2010 topic 3: Thoughts on relationships in SL. With my past partners, I was content with the only SL thing. One partner had a busy life already, another partner didn't even want want to tell me any information about his RL self at all. But that was okay. SL was my paradise, and my escape from my real world. There was more to SL than talking about RL, right? I mean, you have wonderful sims to explore and talk about, so much shopping to do, and other avatars to talk about! I've heard of Second Life residents meeting each other and marrying before. Yes, I was slightly envious. But hey, good for them - that kind of happiness and fluffy stuff just doesn't happen to me, and I'm used to it. At least, thats what I thought at the time.
Jeffry, when I met him in SL, I swore our relationship was going to be just the same. SL only, living across the United States without ever meeting, or even talking via phone. When he brought it up, I was a little scared to commit to a RL meeting, because I am really insecure about my RL self. But our meeting came, was wonderful, made me totally happy, and then it went. (Yes, I know I've blogged about it many, many times)
After the meeting, its been about 2 months now, and while we don't get in SL together much anymore, we still talk all the time via GTalk, Skype, phone and texting. We are more like a long distance RL couple, than a SL couple now. Occasionally, we will plan a movie night, where we'd go rent a movie in SL and cuddle while we watch it, which sometimes feels incredibly real. Its a strange feeling, seeing my avatar curled up to the avatar of my long distance fiance - I can imagine his touch, almost as if he's really with me. Weird, really. I thought I understood it before the meeting, but once we actually met, the feeling has been magnified. As if its not difficult enough to explain, imagine trying to explain it to someone who isn't into SL at all.
Sometimes, it feels like its made our relationship worse, because... when we cuddle in SL, I am reminded how much I miss him. Even with the imaginary feeling, it still doesn't fully replace the real thing. But at the same time, its made things better, because I know he is a real person (in a virtual world, its difficult to remember this sometimes), he's committed to me in both worlds, and SL has become a compliment to our relationship, and not what we are based on.
What was the topic again? Oh, right. Relationships. Well, that about sums every bit of my thoughts on SL/RL relationships, right?
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