When I was a kid, a lot of my summers were spent up in northern Minnesota where my godfather had built his house. He had three children, all of whom were close friends of mine. The daughter was a young horsewoman, four years my senior; she basically taught me how to ride horses and was the older sister I could never have, being the oldest daughter in my own family. The other two were boys, and with my two little brothers the five of us would get into all sorts of trouble together. I accredit my tomboyish youth to all of them, gladly.

My best memories involving them were of playing the game “Kick the Can“, which is best done at night. To sum it up, it’s like hide and seek; your mission is to distract “it” from the can as much as possible, especially when s/he has already captured your fellow players. When you kick the can, they have to chase the it and those captured can run into hiding again. We used coffee cans, since they wouldn’t hurt your foot and were actually fairly aerodynamic. This made it that much harder to find them after they sailed over the huge backyard and into the thick woods behind the house. Eventually we incorporated laser tag into our game, but that’s more amusing than relevant.

I’ve been in Second Life in one form or another for years - nearly 5 to be precise - and I’ve been privileged enough to be a part of the birth of Nexus Prime, survived (and was assimilated by) an invading army of WW2Oers, helped conceptualize and launch Burning Life, and a co-owner in one of the grid’s most popular couture companies. After all this time, one could imagine that pretty little would faze me.

Right now, I feel right now like I’m “it” and my coworkers are very talented and experienced kick the can players. Over the next few weeks I intend to get myself some night vision goggles and start figuring out where they are, what they’re up to, and maybe even find some new games to play.

I’m the new community manager for Millions of Us! Feel free to say hi to me in-world, talk to me about any wild ideas you might have, and especially to share your stories. I have a feeling that my fifth year here is going to be the best yet!