Second Life

Ihave created my second life avatar, Marta Chatterbox. I have been looking around in the orientation area, overheard some conservations about things I knew nothing about, learned to fly, and how to move things a little. But I still don't really 'get' the concept. What am I supposed to do first? What is my objective? I tried to chat with someone, but they didn't respond. I think I didn't do it right after I found the directions for chatting. My instinct tells me I want to find a safe place to be other than orientation, but I have no idea how to do that. I will go back online later and experiment a little more.