My Story...
Here's my story on my pokemon experience, I guess this was the wrong place to post something like this, but yeah...I also have some suggestions at the bottom :)
Well, I first heard about it in, oh, let's see...I think either second or third grade, when the cards were 'unleashed,' It seemed that pretty much everyone had them. Except me. I would ask if anybody had any extra cards that they didn't want...I just got rejected (everyone with cards over there and me with none over here...), and finally I was given a Kakuna card. Then I bought a Fire Energy at a card store.
Charizard was ten bucks...I didn't buy it, but remember that for now...
There was a, like, two month period when I was 'in the group.' By now, I was getting cards more because of my new fondness for pokemon, rather than wanting to be with the other guys (It can become VERY lonely standing around the playground almost completely alone, while everyone is up on the hill with their cards...).
Third to fourth grade, the cards are starting to fade, and the new thing is the Red and Blue Versions...I at this time had no gameboy. I didn't have one (gameboy
color) until I got one with my saved allowance in fifth grade. So I was to sit around for a short period drawing Staryus, Starmies and Shellders (quite good ones may I add). I even gave some to classmates who wanted them (a lot wanted them).
Fourth to fifth grade was when I really got into the cards, even after I bought my gameboy color (cartrige?). I went to the weekly (every Friday!) 'gathering,' where I mastered rules, how to trade and how to battle. I got some cool prerelease and promo cards, it was all good. I bought a Gold cartrige, but I still mostly stuck with the cards, improving my skills.
Back at school, people were playing with stupid looking 'mini cards' (???), which resembled small rectangular (like 1x1/2 in.) pieces of cheap cardboard, with a mini picture of a pokemon, its type and stuff like that. Wierd. Anyway, shortly after, pokemon became banned (as it did with many schools across the nation), and pokemon seemed to be 'hated.' The only time it was referred to was if it was being dissed or something, so nobody talked about it. Nobody that still liked it was made fun of though...I got into the Gold Version that I had been neglecting for a while and laid (layed? lied?? lade??? Oh well...) low.
Sixth grade, you may say was a dud. Nobody talked about or mentioned pokemon, and I had become drastically less interested in the cards for a little while. Most others had gotten rid of their cards the previous year (from giving them away to shooting them with a BB gun). Nothing going on.
After a while, people just would, well, it's sort of odd really...
Whenever someone is trying to refer to something in a conversation or joke or something, pokemon gets mentioned a lot, not anything good or bad, it just gets mentioned...
By now I am back in the cards, and back even more so with the game, considering my projects with the creation of Light White and Space Black (see my siggy). I also finished a deck (back in fifth grade), and nobody at all has ever beaten me :D...unfortunately I didn't get to use it when the cards were still hot...If anybody knows a way to battle on the internet or something...
Well that's my story.
The Suggestions:
Many of you are saying things like some person tells you that you're dumb or something because you like pokemon, and that they're the dumb ones, but most of you also say that you just walk away or something. That's a good idea, but there is an alternative...let's look at an example...a quote from PIKA2..
"You're dumb because you like Pok?mon! It's for little kids!"
PIKA2: Childish little kid, passes school with high grades.
Insult made by the insulter: Going to summer school, and can't spell the word soda.
There, prove my point. ^_^
That one is my favorite :D
If you are in a situation like PIKA2's, where you know something to contredict the person insulting you, use it! Since it's battling them with logic, they have no reasonable thing to say against it. If they do though, you can just give them a look with one of your eyebrows raised that says 'what you just said was stupid and you know it' and if you want go 'uh-huh' in that expectant questioning voice. They'll have no way to cope with it, so end of problem!
I have no idea if I've helped at all but that's my suggestion!