I've been a roleplayer for the better part of my life. I started on forums when I still had to lie about my age on the registration form, and this year I'll be turning 31. Even when I did move away from forum-based RP, I never did stop.
I started running forums when I was about fifteen, and at nineteen I opened Tallygarunga. Tally is---and always was---one of the things I am most proud of. The level of work that went into maintaining the game, advertising, community, all that---Tally is part of who I am. Roleplaying is a huge part of who I am.
... and my family is not aware.
I don't know what to do about this, or if I should do anything at all. Part of me wants them to know -- I want to scream from the rooftops about how much I love my awesome nerds, share things on Facebook, and talk their heads off about the crazy plots we've got.
Part of me is weirdly ashamed of the whole thing.
And then, in a way, it's like I've kept a child a secret from my parents all these years. I'm an extremely private person and my poor Mum is always lamenting that I "don't share enough" of my life with her. Here I am, unable to talk about one of the biggest and best parts of my life, it feels like a lie of omission that I've been keeping for over a decade.
I am very conflicted. I have a good relationship with my family, and drunkMe managed to tell me sister-in-law ALL ABOUT IT at a family wedding. I just... don't know how to talk about it with my parents?
Will they think it ridiculous? Blame Tally for my "internet problem" (yes, I spend a lot of time inside/on computer. I don't like outside. Without the internet, I have a "book problem" or "sitting daydreaming problem" -- deal with it)?
Worse: will they get super excited and decide to jump on Tally and READ EVERYTHING? This is less of a concern to me now that we've got a fresh board (young me wrote some pretty weird stuff), but the idea still makes me uncomfortable. Also I had a dream the other night that my family found out about Tally and were so disgusted by everything they saw that Mum wouldn't look at me and Dad disowned me.
WHAT DO?