Second Life is a huge virtual world that began its life in June 23, 2003 by Linden Lab. It has uses for artists, teachers, musicians, DJs, architects, and really anyone who wants to have fun in a 3D virtual environment. Communities have risen and fallen here. Some are still in their heyday. There are stunning nature and beach sims, realistic residential sims (complete with both houses and apartment complexes in quite a few cases), sims for driving/sailing/aviation, a gazillion sex clubs (because of course there are), and recreations of many real life cities and landmarks. You can even own your own sim, or many sims if you've got a deep enough pocket, to do with as you please, whether it's to become a virtual real estate tycoon like Anshe Chung or it's to simply create a virtual paradise.

I have been in Second Life for 11 years. This avatar's rezzday is June 7, 2013. My original name was scarlotcharlotte, chosen because of a funny discussion some friends from college and I had about what we would name our fictional pirate ship, of which I was the helmsman. The ship's potential name was The Scarlet Harlot, and I'd always been fond of the name Charlotte, so "scarlotcharlotte" I was to be. I spent two years having fun with it, and stopped playing for a bit.

When I came back to Second Life after a brief hiatus, I kind of wanted to start over and so I made an avatar called rebeccaeve at first before settling on Evelyn Ravenmyst. I had a wonderful time on that avatar and I regret deleting her every day. The only reason I deleted her was because of a weird "affair" I had with someone and later felt kind of gross about so obviously my response was to delete the whole thing. Everything. All the things I had invested time and money into, gone. I decided to quit Second Life because I didn't know how to go back. I mean, I had friends! What was I supposed to do, come back under a new name and be like, "hey guyssss, I'm baaaack"? Well, after a year, that's exactly what I did. Except, I think I kept it secret that I was Evelyn for a time, simply because I wanted no connection to what I perceived as the "terrible, gross thing I did". I felt like a fraud, but that's what happens when you manufacture your own drama. Anyway, I was back as lenorafiresong, which was changed within a month or two. I tried on the names Nora Worthing and Lethe Soldumaagh (pronounced [ˈLiθi ˈSoldəˌmɑg]), the latter of which I kept the longest. I was so proud of it, though I couldn't quite decide if I wanted it to be spelled "Leithe" or "Lethe". I just thought it looked cool with an i. "Lethe" is the Greek name of a river in the afterlife that makes you forget your previous life. "Soldemaagh" was supposed to mean "salt maiden", though I wasn't sure if that was a correct translation. I love linguistics and languages, I'm just not good at them.

Finally, Linden Lab brought back last names (which was a thing before I came to Second Life), and I was SUPER ready to drop 40USD on some last name cred, so I became Charlotte Whimsy. I was Charlotte Whimsy for a few years before I hit some hard times and wasn't able to go online at all to release my land holdings, so when my account was in arrears, they locked me out of it and eventually killed it. So now I have my original avatar. And what a time capsule it was when I logged back in! All my old outfits and creations. My old landmarks, old friendships with dudes who were really trying to get into my pixelpants and I accepted friendships with them because I didn't know how to say "fuck off" yet. scarlotcharlotte is back, baby! Although, she goes by Charlotte Wicken now, because I had Premium Plus and could get a last name for 10USD. I tried to get "Blakewell", but that was unavailable with my chosen name "Charlotte", and I was, am, and will always be deadset on the name "Charlotte".