Second Life

Matt told me a story this week about how he and his coworkers discovered that an employee at one of their client sites was spending a lot of work hours playing the online game "Second Life." I'd heard of it, but wasn't really sure what it was all about. From what I can surmise, players create a character and live out an online life. They can go different places, interact with other characters (and those interactions can apparently get quite, ahem, adult...), whatever they want to do. I found it kind of odd, but I have to admit, kind of intriguing. Not the game itself, but the whole concept of a second, alternate life. It made me kind of wonder what my second life would be.

If you look at it from the point of "what would I be doing if I wasn't doing this?" Then my answer would be pretty boring. If I wasn't living this life, I'd probably be chasing this life. See, the only thing I've consistently wanted to be throughout my life was a wife and mother. I know. Who dreams of being a housewife? How boring is that? But it's true, that's all I've ever wanted to be. Well, not all.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a horse trainer. But since I quit riding at 12, that's probably not going to happen. As a high school drama geek, I wanted to be an actress. But lack of any real talent pretty much makes that a bust. Oh sure, I can do a kickass dramatic reading of How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight or If You Give a Moose a Muffin, but I'm unlikely to take the Great White Way by storm. So the one dream that I actually had a chance of being good at was the one I pursued. And had I not gotten married at 24 and had a baby a year later, I'd probably be out there trying to find a husband so I could settle down and be a housewife! What can I say, I'm living the dream.....

So the "road not taken" idea of a second life is boring as hell in my case. But what if you look at it from the alter-ego point of view? As far as I can tell, people playing Second Life create a character that's someone they'd like to be, not someone who bears any resemblance to who they actually are. And that's kind of interesting. Who would you be with no constraints? What would you look like if genetics had no say? What would you act like if there was no fear of repercussions?

If I was going to create an alter-ego, she would be a total badass. She'd be way taller, have a much better body, and have bigger (perkier) boobs. Style wise, I'm thinking definitely retro sexy pin-up girl. Kind of a cross between Dita Von Teese and Danielle from American Pickers. Oh, and they're both burlesque girls, so I bet she'd do that too. She'd be ridiculously cool. She'd probably have tattoos. Oh, and roller derby. She'd definitely do roller derby because those girls are cool, and tough, and sexy. Yup, that's the alter-ego I'd create. And I bet she'd have a really cool second life- lots of adventures that I'd never even dream of.

She would, no doubt, be miles cooler than I ever will, but that's okay. I'm more than content to leave my imaginary counterpart in some alternate universe, because while it's fun to imagine other possibilities for myself, I've got the life I've always wanted right here.