Now "There's" a Friendship 
by Jayyson and Softly Dreaming

 

Two friends stay up chatting late at night and talk about "there" friendships and their friendship and decide to write about it. These are their stories.

 

Softly says: 

If you fill a vase with water drop by drop there is at last a drop that fills it and a one that makes it spill over. The same is true of the heart after a series of kindnesses one by one at last the heart fills and friendship is formed and love spills over. The funny thing is you never know where you will find true friends and how wonderful those friendships will prove to be. 

Lately I've realized that friends are a big reason why I am always in There. Besides the fact I love designing, my club, and writing for the Voice. I never thought I'd have on-line friends that I never met in person.  

Before There I was not much of an internet person I was actually an on-line virgin so to speak. 

All right I shouldn't have been naive, but I was. With all my life experience (I'm a business owner and world traveler) you'd think I'd have some real internet experience but besides e-mail, texting friends, and playing toontown with my niece I knew zilch. Heck I never even looked at porn or cybersexed. One day I said to myself if they have toontown for kids there must be something like it for adults, and I stumbled across "Second Life" and "There".  It looked harmless enough (little did I know the "hurts so good" addiction I'd be facing) so my first choice was Second Life. I mean Drew Carey and my favorite local Irish tavern promoted it. Well immediately I lost my avatar's clothing and the other avatars typing at my naked avatar seemed like a frightening sexual attack to my virgin eyes. Once I got over the initial shock I tried to make sense of it all, to no avail. But finally I thought I was getting somewhere playing with and designing a cube. And I liked my name Starbrite Nitely. Well one day I logged in and what did I see?!  My avatar was stripped naked (after I really took time to fix that)! It actually could walk around like that...and as amusing as it is now, that was it- I was done with second life. A few weeks later I decided to try again and this time I found "There". Now I had to think of a name. Starbrite Nitely had a bitter taste for me, so what would I be called? Well this whole virtual world was like an escape, a soft dream where you could forget about real life troubles. That was it- Softlydreaming was born. 

But it doesn’t mean suddenly being in There was easy... at first it was so foreign and all the people wanting to kiss me scared me. So why did I stay? Well I started to look at profiles and I read one of an avatar named Devilishious and it was very funny and I instantly liked her. I immed her to tell her so and before I knew it we were great friends and that’s why I stayed in there to hang out with my friend. And I met other friends in There and we became close and formed the Bff club together. I really have to thank them all because with out them there would be no best friends forever club. To me it really means something. And as strange as it seems my friends in There, the people or should I say avatars in my club, we have been through things together on-line and have shared experiences hopes and dreams and even real life problems. 

My best friends in there are two gay men, a Dutch senior island guide, two Asian women one from malaysia (simply ny writer and a teacher), an African American couple who have made a clubhouse to honor mine, a nurse and avid designer who I started a There business with, and a man with tourette's syndrome who's amazing heart just touches you.

That doesn't even include all my close friends in my club from all around the world, only in an online community could you meet people from such different backrounds, and variety is the spice of life. 

One day I looked at a profile and I laughed so hard that I knew I wanted to be friends with this person. It was the co-writer of this article Jayyson. The funny thing is my other friends warned me to stay away from him and I didn't listen lol. That's how it was that Jayyson and my other close friend (before we were friends lol) xX_Blackout_Xx trapped me and paintballed me into the floor at the subway before I knew what paintballs were. I was rescued through a summons by the friend who had warned me. 

But if you ask me when Jayyson and I became great friends I can't tell you the precise moment just like I couldn't tell you which drop of water would make the vase spill over all, I don't know which of all the kindnesses that made my heart spill over. All I know is I'm really glad we are. 

And I'm happy I have a place like There to hang out with my friends.

 

Jayyson says:

I have to say.....I never honestly thought that with online games such as this those friendships that you could consider real would arise. I've been using the internet for the best part of 10 years now and I’ve never played a game like THERE in the past. So when I joined on March 10 2007 I honestly wasn't expecting a whole lot. As a new member I had been subjected to the usual newbie initiations such as being hit by a buggy without my forcefield on etc etc etc.  One thing I honestly didn't expect to find on here were some amazing friendships. Although I have people on my buddy list from all over the world, there are 3 people who stand out the most. First up is my best friend x_xblackoutx_x. Cant say enough good things about about him. Secondly there is Softlydreaming - co writer of this article & 3rdly Samuraia1 with whom I share a mutual love for David Beckham with.
 

I had met Samuraia1 on the infamous duda beach one night when she said hello. We instantly hit it off and have been great friends ever since. Being a gay guy on THERE I've had my fair share of idiotic comments from those uneducated people who seem to think that by standing around talking to me may just turn them gay. With Samuraia1 she's never judged me at all has always been there if I need someone to just talk with. We've shared many great times on the game and I hope there are many more great times to come. Samuraia really does have a good soul & I am truly happy that she stepped up and told me Hello that one night. For those who don’t know me on there I am rather shy and tend to keep to myself unless approached but once I get to know you I really do open  up.

 

Softlydreaming I met just a few months ago at the Rainbow Raceway where she was hosting an event. I had gone to the track to lap in my buggy as I am a huge fan of buggy racing on there. I guess she had read my profile and thought it was pretty funny. My profile had since been changed however back then it read something along the lines of "All you straight women listen up!. I'm Gay". That means I don’t want to talk dirty to you, don’t want to be your there boyfriend and definitely don’t want you talking dirty to me" You would be amazed at how many ladies have gotten mad at me for being gay and not being amused or turned on by their advances. Softly saw the humor in it and told me Hi. I got talking to her and summoned my best mate to the race track. From there he and I decided to take her to Club Makena for some amusement. We ended up in the Subway down below and in the midst of the conversation I said I was being summoned. So I teleported to my spot on the other side of the wall where I could see through the wall but those on the other side could not see me. Now Soflydreaming - bless her heart and she knows I love her to death - is 99% of the time without her forcefield, so I got out my paintgun and fired away. Well the next thing my msn messenger is going crazy and x_xblackoutx_x is telling me OMG OMG OMG GET BACK HERE NOW!!!!! I teleport back and find Softly in half in the floor trying to get up. Im dying laughing and so is x_xblackoutx_x If I remember right she was summoned away. Thankfully though she did see the humor in that since that night we have formed quite a strong friendship on there. I can honestly say that she is one of the most genuine people I know on there. 

As for x_xblackoutx_x, I first met him back in early January I think when he first joined there. Now Im all about helping out new members and for the longest time he was always coming by and saying Hello. Finally one day he had mentioned that he was premium so I ended up giving him a some clothes that I no longer needed. I have a habit of giving away my old stuff to newly premium members. It was until over the summer months that we started hanging out more. I've met my fair share of decent people on there and my fair share of idiots so to speak but I can honestly say that in my time on there I haven't had the pleasure of meeting and befriending someone as cool as x_xblackoutx_x. I can't say a bad word about him & really do appreciate and value his friendship.

All in all I can honestly say that I've been really blessed to be able to have met these amazing folk on there. We have shared so many great times together & I know there are many many many more to come. I have fun with almost everyone I meet on the game but I can safely say I have the most fun with the 3 great people I just spoke of. They really do mean allot to me & make my there life so much more fun...............See you in THERE.......Jayyson.