Virtually Real or Really Virtual: A Newcomer’s First Plunge Into the World of VR
Written by Anandam RaviI put on my headset,
Adjust my mindset,
And leave my hang ups at the gate.
I take a moment to learn,
How to walk, talk, and turn,
For wonderful new worlds await!
It’s vaguely familiar,
And yet not so similar
As to be boring or always the same!
There’s the old office chatter,
Real enough to matter
But virtual enough to feel like a game!
I adjust my avatar —
My persona in VR,
She can be tall or short, fat or lean,
She sets me free,
Though very much me,
But more forthright than I’ve ever been!
Is it the sound of the sea
Or the birds around me?
Somehow I’m more candid in VR!
Perhaps I have no choice,
When I hear my own voice
Coming from my online avatar!
Happily I labor
Over a task with my neighbour
Who lives half a world away IRL!
We teleport and meditate,
Spawn, present and levitate,
We high five, bump fists, whisper, yell!
And before you ask,
No, I can’t multi-task,
Either I’m in all in or I’m out,
If I am not “now and here”,
I literally disappear,
And that’s what real learning’s about!
So I adjust my mindset —
Just because it’s in my headset
Doesn’t mean that all this is not real!
For I learn by being,
By doing and seeing,
I learn because I dare to feel!
