So this weekend is #Pokemon20 and in celebration of this occasion, I thought it would be pretty cool to share my story on how I got into Pokemon…..
I was 5 years old when I first heard about Pokemon, so my memory of that experience may be a little fuzzy but I’ll try my best to recall those childhood memories. I remember it was Saturday morning, I got up extra early because I forgot to shut the curtains in my room and the sun’s ray hit my eyes and woke me up. So I decided to head over to the living room to catch some morning cartoons like I always do.
Instead of the usually Dragon Ball Z and Tom & Jerry, I instead was introduced to one of the most ear-gasm theme song of the century. It immediately got my attention and as soon as I saw Mew and Mewtwo fly across space, my mind was at flare. At that time it all looked so cool and amazing to me and I wanted to see more.
Luckily for me it was the first episode of the series that I saw, so I wasn’t lost in terms of story-wise. I watched every single episode since that day, watching Ash meet Pikachu for the first time, catching Caterpie, meeting Misty, Brook and Gary, seeing Team Rocket blast off again and again and watching Ash as he travels all over Johto region. It was all  an amazing experience and fun to watch. Oh and I can’t forget about the movies too, I’ve have watched every single Pokemon movie that came out at the time, my favorite been “Pokémon: The First Movie” – “Mewtwo Strikes Back”.  You can’t tell me that you didn’t shed a tear when Ash got turned into stone, don’t lie to me, we all did.
After that, all I could think about was Pokemon, Ash’s stubborn Pikachu (yeah Pikachu wasn’t the innocent mouse we all know today, he was…. let’s say edgy), and what battle was next. Soon after I learned that there was a game based off the show and I did everything within my bestowed kid power to convince my parents to buy me a Gameboy so I could play it. Unfortunately my parents weren’t to kin of the idea of me playing Pokemon.
It took quite a while but I was finally was able to get my hands on Pokemon Red, the definitive version, and it was at that very moment that I learned what true addiction was because I was literally gone from reality. I picked Charmander of course, the definitive starter Pokemon, and my journey as a trainer finally began. From dawn to dusk, (oh at least what my battery allowed me to) all I did was play Pokemon. I was hooked and there was no going back.
It was one of my most favorite games to play at the time and I invested so much hours into it.
I got to experience the joy of catching my favorite Pokemons, that nerve-wrecking feeling of watching that PokeBall wriggle as you await your fate, that soul-crushing feeling when your battery dies and you just then realized you never saved ( the struggle was real my friends ), but most of all that great feeling of sharing your experience of Pokemon with my school friends.
My journey with Pokemon was long and beautiful, however, sadly it ended with Pokemon Diamond as that was my last Pokemon game for me. I didn’t stop because I felt that I was too old to play or anything, the sole reason why I stopped playing was because I traded in my Nintendo DS for a PSP, as my brothers had one and  I felt isolated.
I might lowkey finally pick up that New Nintendo 3DS so I can play that new Pokemon Sun, the definitive version, but will see as time goes on. I originally bought the Nintendo DS for Pokemon Diamond so that alone should tell you how amazing Pokemon is as a game.
Pokemon will always have a special place in my heart and seeing how this game has brought so much joy to so many people is absolutely amazing. I want to thank Satoshi Tajiri, Ken Sugimori, Game Freak, Tsunekazu Ishihara and everyone that contributed to creating these amazing games and filling my childhood with so much joy.  I also want to thank the fans too, heck without the support, Pokemon wouldn’t have gone as far as it did today so thank you too.
Happy Pokemon20 Day and Thank You for reading.
