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Guild Leadership is a daunting task at times. Sure you have officers to back up your decisions and help enforce policies. But after a night of running a raid, dealing with someone complaining, you log off. You leave it all in the game world, well not always. Sometimes that stress can certainly follow you. Maybe a long standing guild member who you felt you are close to left the guild, or they caused drama, or you and this person got into an argument. Sometimes you need some support, this is where for me the “First Lady” as I like to call her comes into play.

When I experience burnout and over stressed, I lean on my officers to take on a bit more, but out of game I turn to my wife.  Now I have been playing World of Warcraft for 5+ years (if you include the original closed beta).  I have known my wife pretty much that whole time and been married for 3 years.

Now my wife has tried to play WoW, she has tried a druid and a priest, the most fun she seems to have is hiding behind foliage and trying to pop out to surprise me in game, even though we are grouped together and can see her on my mini-map.  But that’s besides the point.  Either way none of her characters have ever really gotten off the ground, mostly because she is not that interested I think, though I secretly hope one day she will want to play more.

Where the First Lady truly shines is after a long raid I can go and talk to her about the events that transpired.  She offers me great advice on how to deal with situations.  The great thing is she doesn’t truly understand all the game mechanics so she can focus on purely the social aspect in giving me advice.  Which is great for me as sometimes I try to tie things together with game mechanics.

She is also there to de-stress me after a long progression night or a bit of drama that might creep up.  She will scratch my back, we will watch TV and just talk about anything non-WoW related to get my mind off of it for a bit.

She has kept me grounded while being a guild leader for several years.  She has been more to me than a great wife, my best friend, she has been my greatest behind the scenes officer, my first lady.