I created Express Zenovka, my first account, around 6:30 pm on June 9, 2007.

Has it really been only three years? Somehow it feels like a lot longer. I don't think I ever expected Second Life to become such a large part of my life, though I'm pretty sure most folks in SL don't went they first download the client.

I downloaded Second Life because I was bored and lonely, and generally unhappy with my life. The last two years of school had taught me that I really wasn't as smart as I thought I was, that I didn't really like the subject I though I wanted to do for my life, and that growing up as a sheltered, only child had not prepared me socially for "the real world." I had a lot of trouble connecting with others at school. On top of that, my small circle of friends from high school had managed to stick together during freshman year of college, but by sophomore year our respective interests, commitments, and time zones had caused us to drift apart.

So I turned to the place that had been my refuge and comfort for so many years -- the web. Unfortunately, many of my "interests" from high school were just that -- interests from high school -- and I found it very difficult to reconnect with those respective communities. Many of the other "old timers" had disappeared or moved on and I just didn't fit anymore.

And that's why I downloaded Second Life. I justified the escapist fantasy by saying I wanted to make a quick buck, so my first few days were mostly spent camping. At night, I did what (in my head) was what normal, lonely, depressed men did -- visited SL strip clubs and tried to chat it up with the dancers. Kinda depressing in retrospect. Eventually I realized camping wasn't enough return on investment, and decided to get a job at one of the clubs. That was the first in a long list of professions including but not limited to: club manager,store model, furniture designer, mall manager, fashion blogger, runway model, bartender, magazine writer, pro surfer, web admin, chicken farmer, scripter, advertiser, and bunny farmer.

While making money has always been an admirable goal (and a good way to keep busy in SL), I also have grown a lot as a person during my time in SL. Fumbling through online relationships of all sorts -- professional, romantic, friendships -- helped me slowly but surely change parts of my life that I didn't like. Sure, you might say, why didn't you just go out and do that in real life. Why didn't you go out and interact with "real people"? Well, life is all about comfort zones, and the web is where I felt comfortable. You could say that Second Life provided the training wheels I needed to figure out aspects of real life. Lessons I learned in Second Life have helped me out a lot in various ways: I leveraged my connections in SL to create an art project for an art class and analyzed the experience in another humanities class. Hey, even fashion blogging came in handy as it influenced the way I dressed and presented myself to potential employers.

But the real reason I've stuck in Second Life is the friends I've made. The friends and connections I've made over the years have made SL worth it. Especially, of course, my wonderful partner Luna. I really don't think I'd have stayed in Second Life this past year without her, and this past year my Second Life accomplishments (off the top of my head the feeds, my various scripts for virtual animals, SLDD) are some of the ones I'm most proud of.

So, despite all the recent changes at LL, and uncertain future of SL, here's to another year.