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A couple of weeks ago, I saw an international edition of Newsweek whose cover story was about the growing popularity of Second Life. It had a woman whose face was split into her real life image and that of her virtual life. The cover of the magazine captivated me and reminded me of my own experience of having a second life. For many people an attractive feature of Second Life is the ability to escape real life and try on different masks. I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is a city that is rife with social problems including the terrible school system which leaves most kids at a disadvantage. However, it was even more terrible for me because I was chastised and bullied on a regular basis by other students who had suspected that I was gay. Even more difficult was the relationship I had with my family who are devout Pentecostals and could not understand what I was experiencing. Growing up gay in a homophobic environment was extremely painful. Eventually, I gave up on trying to engage with other people in my community and turned inward. I explored technologies such as the internet in an attempt to connect with other people that were outside my geographic boundaries. The internet opened up a whole new world of possibilities. I found others who were like me and had similar interests. The result was that I began to live a separate life on the internet, as most of my friendships and relationships I developed were with people that I had met online. As a result of the advancement of technologies, I've been able to reinvent myself and express myself in ways I never could have in real life. When I enter the virtual world I do and say everything I wish were possible in my normal self but isn’t. I think this is mainly because we operate as the people that we think society says we should be and are limited by the constraints that we put on ourselves. Similar to the dream state, virtual life gives me the ability to live as my alter ego with new found strength and abilities such as flying and having more control over my environment. Virtual reality gives me the ability to become self-actualized with a greater number of tools and provides previously impossible experiences. Virtual reality has given me a chance to have a voice and escape some of the pressures of society.Ultimately, the relationship between real life and virtual life depends on one’s own level of imagination, willingness, and skill at integrating the two worlds.

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