not my SecondLife

Today was my first day on Second Life. After several minutes trying to navigate my way through a destination, i finally made it to a fairy popular island and was surrounded by tons of avatars. As each one appeared in front of me, slowly loading from bare figures to elaborate and detailed avatars, i tried to interact with different people. My "gestures" did nothing it seemed. I figured out how to chat publicly so I started asking questions and letting people know it was my first time on second life. People seemed busy answering everyones questions, but I did get several responses such as "welcome to SL!" Everything seemed so busy. Then one person in particular, Eiffel Skytower, sent me a private message. We started chatting and I found out he had been using second life for about two years and he spent about 2 hours a day on it. He talked a lot about what SW213 discussed: the type of life people lead on SL as opposed to their real life. It was really interesting hearing straight from a user that people can be whoever they want. He said everyone on here can be skinny, attractive, and young. When in reality, (he claimed) mostly 40 year olds used Second Life. Eiffel Skytower told me that he was married in SL and when asked about how it connected with his real life, he told me that he did not mix the two. He said people get married and divorced online all the time, but mainly people married when they felt connected with someone they spent a lot of virtual time with.
My interaction with Eiffel Skytower really stuck with me. I was even impressed at how willing a complete stranger was to spend timetalking with me. Before leaving he told me his partner Dee was very helpful with SL as well. Skytower was not too personal or overbearing, just willing to engage in friendly conversation. He seemed to have a great virtual personality...but I am dying to know what he is really like in person. Is he someone I would approach? is he someone I would spend time talking to? What is his real life like?

Now i am starting to understand this virtual world...it is driven by curiosity, and curiosity drives learning. When people are curious they explore and it leads them to further engagement, and more time, playing in Second Life.