Misty Rhodes

I rezzed into Second Life as Misty Rhodes on August 5, 2003 - That was 16 years and 9 months ago. Certainly not the oldest Resident but definitely one of the biggest and most sincere lovers of Second Life. Before that date I was in TSO (The Sims Online). I was texting with a friend from TSO on MSN when she said she had to go to Second Life. I thought she meant RL but I am forever thankful I decided to ask her what she meant. She told me about how everything was user made and I was definitely wanting to check it out. I was not a computer geek or nerd but the moment I set my pixelated foot inside Prelude I was hooked. When I got out of that training and into the wonderful world of Second Life I was in awe. And I have so many friendships cultivated in those early days still. I was a social butterfly and even though I was on a computer that could not run SL it never made me give up. To explain how bad those early days were for me, I could not move but the people around me were wonderful. They would rez a prim for me to sit on and drag me around. lol When it would go to night time my screen would go completely black. But I was still in love with SL because of the Community. I had a great "Mentor" and I myself became a Mentor because of him. As I made friends, my love for SL kept growing. I got to meet in RL many SLers and Lindens at The First Second Life Community Convention where I became a part of the people who made the convention possible. I was part of that event for the next 7 years. during the beginning days of my Second Life I found out Linden Lab hired many people from within the Community so I tried and tried and finally on January 16, 2006, I rezzed into Second Life as Mia Linden with my sister Linden, Dee. It was a dream come true for me. I so love SL, the people, the creativity and the endless wonder of the people who create and share. For the next 4.5 years I was Mia. But I always logged in Misty after work. It was the best work experience of my life. Being able to work for something I was so passionate about. I was in awe of my fellow Lindens. How did I get so lucky. Even after my life as a Linden, I remained in Second Life. I still login everyday except for when my computer broke. I was able to get a Lifetime Account so I will login every day till I die. I am thankful for the many friends I have because of this platform. Friends around the globe and those I get to visit with in RL and always in Second Life. I never delete a friendship. I am proud of that because I get IMs from people saying they just returned to SL after years away and I am the only friend they had left. They said it was nice to see a familiar name and thanked me. Honestly, I thank them because I am so happy to be a part of their virtual world. Back when I started we had ratings which would factor into your stipend. We had parcel ratings too.. It was awesome to see your friends flying by and dinging your vote meter every day. And then doing the same for them as well. We had taxes, we paid to teleport and there were only HUBS not direct teleports. I miss many friends that no longer log in. But, some are coming back and that is so awesome. I was a social butterfly as I stated earlier. Back then L$ had no monetary value but as is the case still, it was hard for new Residents to know how to make money in SL. So that is what I did. I started Misty's Free Raffles. I would use my L$ and my partners and people would come and click on my Raffle Board which would give them a gift and enter their name in the raffle and then I would start clicking to get winners and give them L$. Then I started getting unsolicited donations of L$ and prizes. I would do the event until all donations was given out. Some events lasted 3 hours. I also did MistyWood Squares and I got Philip Linden as my Center Square with a few other Linens and well known SLer's of the day. Sadly I was still on my subpar computer and crashed so Philip took over hosting for me. Oh such good times back then and now. I will always love my Second Life because of all of you. My friends and my friends yet to be.