Since the first day we got back from winter break,
senioritis has been a plague that has seemed to slowly but steadily creep into
my life. What started out as drifting off in class at times led to full blown
afternoons of doing little to no work at all. I laugh out loud to think that I
once upon a time told myself I wouldn’t be like every other senior, but alas,
I’ve been dragged into the norm. And to think it all started going downhill on
that fateful day when the original Pokémon series came out on Netflix. For
wherever there is Pokémon, I will always be there.
_________________
It was a dull and rainy Saturday
afternoon as I sat and played with my action figures on the living room floor
of the same house I live in today. But the day wouldn’t be dull for much
longer, because today was the day that my mom was taking me to see my first
movie ever in theaters. The name of the movie was Pokémon 2000, a tale in which
main character Ash and his friends stumble upon three legendary Pokémon and
fight bad guys to save the Pokémon from captivity. You can only guess where
such an exciting movie like that took me.
Not even a year later, what had
started out as a mild interest transformed into a full-blown obsession. I had Pokémon-themed
everything: shoes, clothes, hats, posters, wallpaper, bed sheets, stuffed
animals, and much more. If you name it, I’m pretty sure I had it! I fondly
remember rushing home from school every Tuesday and Thursday, so eager to catch
the latest Pokémon episode that was on at 4 o’clock. There would never be a
time where I would watch my Pokémon shows without my favorite Pokémon blanket
and stuffed Pikachu right by my side. I even recall at one point forcing my
mother to buy me the new Pokémon cereal, of which I ate the whole box despite
its bland taste. I even got plastic Pokéballs for Christmas one year, which I
used every single day until they all were broken. As I raced around the house after school with
Pikachu in my arms, I would always imagine that we were embarking on a great
adventure to become the best Pokémon trainer of all time! You could say I had
quite the imagination when I was a kid, and it only continued to grow as I got
older.
As the years went by, my love for Pokémon only
grew. After the original series ended, I began to collect every trading card I
could find. Without a doubt, my favorite two cards I ever owned were my shiny
Electabuz and shiny Charizard, both of which were valued at around $25 each. I
must have spent every penny I had as a child completing my whole collection,
which ironically sits in a box in my closet untouched for years despite my
still-persistent love for all things Pokémon. But back then, my Pokémon cards were
my most prized possession; they would’ve been for any boy or girl my age. I
loved being the envy of all my friends when I’d bring my card binder over to
their houses and show them all my latest additions to my ever-growing
collection. I even tried to enter in a local card game competition when I was eleven,
but alas my parents said I was too young.
From that point I moved onto the
new Pokémon games, which still to this day dominate the video game markets all
over the world. My best friend gave me my first Pokémon game on my twelfth
birthday, which went quite nicely with the Gameboy my parents bought me. I was
a pretty lucky kid to say the least. The games were by far my favorite of
anything that the creators of Pokémon came up with. It was not long until I had
every single game from the first three “generations”, meaning I had a total of
nine games at one point. Though it sounds ridiculous to have had nine Pokémon
games at once, I certainly put all nine of them to more than good use, beating
them all at least twice. The best thing about the games in my opinion was the
fact that I could finally become the Pokémon trainer I had watched on TV and go
on my own adventure. I could even catch whatever Pokémon I wanted if I searched
for it! It was everything I needed at the time. All my friends played it and so
did my brother, which made it all the more fun to keep playing it even as I got
to be older.
One of the things I always kept in
mind through all those years of Pokémon love was how much it meant to me and influenced
my life. I think the thing that always drew me to Pokémon more than anything
else was its ability to keep up with the popularity of all ages of children
while still remaining nonviolent. When I look at all the popular games amongst
children and teens out today such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, it
makes me seriously wonder how the violence is acceptable. I am so thankful my
parents never let me get any violent video games. Even now they are iffy about
me playing any M-rated games even if I am seventeen. It is so strange to me to
think about how much has changed in the last five years with gaming. I feel
like gaming companies have lost their creative edge and have resorted to
desensitizing children like the rest of society has today. And it’s not like
violence receives so much of a better rating that what Pokémon has, so we know
that kids are willing to enjoy nonviolent games just as much. I just wish that
kids today were as much into Pokémon as I was. It was something that all my
friends were as into as I was. I still play the games every now and then, and
they are most certainly just as fun every single time.
Even now, I still share my love for
Pokémon in many ways. I will talk the ear off of anyone who is willing to
listen to me about it. Though the Netflix release of the show has affected my
school work, I am so happy I get to relive the best parts of my childhood
before I head off to college in the fall. It may seem childish to some, but I
believe that Pokémon is a great link to my past that I can still access to this
day. It’s a fad that may die down as I grow older, but will never die out
completely. I may not seem like much of a nerd, but I’m the head of the pack
when it comes to my love for Pokémon.
No comments:
Post a Comment