Life After Domming

Since the announcement of my retirement, I've been contacted by many friends and strangers in-world, asking how I've been doing in the aftermath of my decision. I just read about a friend of mine who's also decided to simplify her Second Life, and that prompted me to post an update of my own.

It's been a bittersweet affair. Some of the pets took it hard, while others weren't much surprised- a few were actually rather supportive. Only two pets formally chose to exit the family (one had already been essentially absent for a while), and the rest opted to remain with us under Kelly's care. They haven't been around as often as they used to be, though, and I have mixed feelings about that- part of me worrying that they're just slowly falling away, and the other part just glad to have more uninterrupted time with Kelly. Oh I've also done a lot of shopping, and I organized all my clothes, hair, and skins!

I recently opened two new residential islands, and I was fantastically busy with those for a while, but now we're all rented out and I can spend most of my time just doing whatever I want. It's liberating, and has made SL pleasant again. Things aren't perfect, though. I'm nursing some ego issues and trying to figure out my role in the world. For nearly my entire Second Life I've been "Mistress Wildefire." It's part of who I was. I still have my domme moments; sometimes I flirt with subs who show up at my mall, and I get a little excited- but at the end of the day I'm happy to have a limited set of in-world commitments.

My real-life commitments, however, are another story- and they are taking a toll on my Second Life. I've had to shave at least a half-hour off of my nightly online times, and I'm still not getting enough sleep. When I'm logged into Second Life these days I'm frequently too tired or sick to focus on building or doing scenes. I've just been hanging out with Kelly and the occasional guests, although soon we're going to embark on a big building project together, if I can ever muster the strength.

I feel a lot of personal pressure to keep this blog going; I certainly have a bunch of things to talk about yet. It's just a matter of finding a way to work it back into my life. Stay tuned. :)

EDIT: I've been thinking about this some more this evening, and I wanted to add that I've also been experiencing a new sort of vulnerability that I never really had here before. Up until now I've always had several pets or playmates on hand- if one went absent the others would take up the slack. In any case, I was never at risk of being truly alone. But now there's just Kelly. She is my Second Life, and I'm sensing myself getting even more protective of her- of what we have together- than before. I just hope she continues to put up with me. ;)