friendsgiving in vr

30 november 2025, sunday

friendsgiving is the term that is used to describe celebrating thanksgiving with friends rather than family. my friends are practically family to me, but so many of us live so far away. our best options to hangout and congregate are to do so online, and THE best option that we have is thru vrchat. the monday of this year's thanksgiving week, myself and my friends met up in vrchat to chill, check out some virtual environments, and take photos of each other. while we can't exactly eat food and break bread together, just simply being able to be in each others' presence during such a family-oriented holiday feels really good. if i could have it my way, my friends and my community in vr would be welcome to my home for every holiday.

i have known some of my vrchat friends for several years at this point. the longest friendship that i have from vrchat specifically is nearly 6 years, and we have essentially seen each other grown up. some of the homies that i have been hanging with since the pandemic are either married, having kids, or reaching new heights in their careers or personal projects. it's bittersweet, the holiday season, as it beckons us to catch up with each other on maybe more serious notes but it also reminds us about the march of time. it is so unforgiving. even in these virtual environments, i found myself looking around at my friends and the tech that we engage in and the things that we experience thru the lens of, "damn, we really have been at it for this long".

i don't regret it at all. i don't think anyone around me does. but realizing that life /really/ doesn't pause for anyone can still feel a little scary. when i first started vrchat, it felt like time didn't exist within the platform. now, with people that mean so much to me and memories that will be forever imprinted on my mind, i am well aware of how much i have invested on this platform aside from time.

polaroid cameras and conversation pits exist even in the virtual world. we sit around fires that lack the heat that their physical counterparts do, we take pictures with cameras that we cannot even truly hold. we, i, archive all of these moments digitally.

i think there are many outside of virtual reality that might look at us and think, "are they not missing out on experiencing this in real life?" and my immediate answer to that is, "we never got the chance for these things to happen to us in real life yet". virtual reality isn't an escape for us. virtual reality is a chance. a chance to build relationships that matter, a chance to try new things, a chance to learn, a chance to grow, a chance to be, and a chance to belong somewhere. thru taking those chances, i have met some of the best people i have ever known. i have eventually met some of them in real life. i have held some of their kids in my arms. i have hugged them, i have cried with them, i have mourned with them. and it all started with a chance.

my group of friends in virtual reality were the first people i came out to as trans. i have only been met with the utmost support and motivation from them.

while the objects in these environments cannot be felt, and the people we sit next to cannot be in physical proximity, the times that we have are real.

list of the worlds that we checked out on our friendsgiving worldhop:

bonus pictures