Ohh where to start.... I think I'll write a short narrative on how my pokemon journey first began.
Chapter 1:
The Kindling of a whole new world!
It was a dark night, not much unlike others. I had enjoyed a very nice day at school, after all, it was only second grade. My friend pulled out these unique, well crafted cards.
"What are those cards? They look kinda like baseball cards, what are they?"
I asked. He replied.
"Oh this? It's called a Pokemon card, you want some of my doubles?"
"Oh yes! That would be awesome!"
I had heard of a creature called "Pikachu" back in first grade, the year before. I never got to experience who this lovable animal was all about, but the name sure was fun to say. As soon as I got home I made sure to show off my new cards.
"Mom, look what I got! Daniel says their called pokemon!"
"Pokemon ehh? Aww, thats so cute! What is it? ..... Bulbasaur? awww!"
"Mo---m! It attacks stuff, like this!"
I made motions with my arms that acted much like the vines of a bulbasaur.
"Okay, just dont hurt yourself"
"RAAAR! Mom?"
"Yes?"
"Can I get some pokemon cards?"
My mom hesitated for a second.
"Well... I suppose I do need to take back my shoes, aw heck, get ready, we're going to the mall."
Chapter 2:
The Wong Choice!
I was staring at the lines of the road as they went by, we were nearly to the mall. My seatbelt nearly snapped in two when it was time to get out of the car.
"Common! No time to lose!!! YAYAYAY!!"
We finally reached the store and I was eager to get my new pokemon cards.
"Which pokemon cards do you battle with?"
The casheer looked at me with a puzzled look.
"These ones, here."
"Seven dollars for a pack of twelve?"
My mom was hesitant but eventually bought them.
"Mom, can I open them now?"
"I think I'll take care of them, we don't want you to lose them all now do we?"
"Fine..."
I shrugged and worked my way to the exit of the mall.
When I got out of the car to get in my house I was so excited! I ripped the package open and! The cards were nothing like my friend had, they just told the info of the pokemon, no attacks, no energy, nothing. They were those lame "Topps" cards that nobody really bought, I wasn't too upset, I just wanted a pokemon.
Chapter 3
The Real Journey begins
One week later, my grandparents came all the way from Mississippi to visit us. Half way into the week, my grandpa says that he had to go to the Dublin mall to sell his book, so we went. When I got there my mouth had dropped! It was a shopper's paradise, so clean, so diverse, it was amazing! At the time, there were about five different card shops, each of them devoted about seventy-five percent of the store to Pokemon. What had I missed in the past year? I was shocked. My grandma saw me drooling all over the different variety of cards. The casheer probably was the leader of a pokemon league, though I didnt know at the time.
"Is there anything grandma can buy you?"
My grandma is definately not cheap, by that she really meant, is there anything good I get you?
"What about this one?"
"Oh yes, this is a fine choice for a beginning trainer, it has the how-to-play manual and everything, it comes with two starter decks of thirty cards."
The owner of the store seemed very experienced, so my grandma bought me the cards, I was sure to clear every bit of writing the manual had to offer that night.
Chapter 4
The Anime!
I was there at the first day the anime aired, boy was it an amazing day. Nobody had seen a show that actually had an ongoing story, back then, anime's were not shown on public tv, and I'm pretty sure they were'nt really sold much in the US anyways. This show was absalutely astonishing! Any other show I watched was about sensless nonsense. Batman, ninja turtles, they were nice, but they didn't have a detailed plot, and every episode was the same. Watching Ash put those glooves on for the very first time reminded me of the beginning of my Pokemon Journey, I felt a strange bond to him, like he was me or something.
Chapter 5
Lost in Time
After the first movie had aired, I moved to a new school. It was a private school of about 27 people total. The pokemon craze was alive and well. Charizard was the legendary figure across the nation for is incredible hp level, although a mr. mime could have sent him back to his pokeball in a few turns anyways. A month had past, our great trades lasted on and on. A new student came, along with a new teacher, his mother. She reported a fact that the principal never cared to notice, that was, pokemon evolution. They banned pokemon from the school permanently until someday it would be restored. This did not stop us, I was in third grade at the time. Pokemon went from being a care free trading craze, to an exciting underground society, and the whole school was in on it.
After a while, we got tired of getting caught with pokemon cards, our charizards were no match for the phrase
"I'm going to have to confinscate that now."
Pokemon, in our minds, was nothing more than a fond memory, on occasion, a charizard or two would be snuck, but thats about it...
To be continued....
Chapter 6
A new beginning
It was nearly three years later that I ever picked up a pokemon card. It was the summer time, I had just finished 5th grade. Guess what? Pokemon was STILL alive. I had to go to a summer day-care type thing, though is was extremely fun. I saw some kids playing pokemon cards.
"Where have I seen those before?"
I puzzled.
"Oh yes! Pokemon! Hey guys, can I play?"
"Sure"
They all replied nearly the same time.
"So how do you play?"
It was then that my Pokemon interest was reborn. Though they weren't actually playing the game right, it still got me back into pokemon.
We played everyday, a couple hours a day.
Chapter 7
Pokemon videogame!?
After time had passed, about a month or so, I noticed the other kids bringing their gameboys, which I had at the time believe it or not. They were playing Pokemon! Why I haden't heard about it I'll never know. I didn't care, I had to get a pokemon game! So I asked my mom, and she said she'd take me to the mall in stockton, so we went. There was a gamestop there that basically only sold used games, pretty crazy. So I bought pokemon blue at a very low price, it was great! As I played a new world of pokemon unfolded. Then, my game started to act weird when I walked, It was very annoying, so we took the game back.
"Hmmm... I'll let you pick a new game out since it messed up so bad."
He obviously knew nothing about the Pokemon games.
"Mom! It happened again!"
The same thing happened and we took it back again!
This time, there was a much more experienced employee.
"That's what happens when you get poisoned."
I was so embarassed, but then again, how could I of known?
From then on, I raised a kadabra to level 60 by the time I was in lavendar town, extremely crazy I know....
Chapter 8
THE POKEMON LEAGUE!
All my battles at "Summer Camp" aka daycare lead me to one question. Is there any way to show my abilities? I recently bought Pokemon the first movie, it had a commercial of the pokemon league on it, so I looked up all the different pokemon leagues.
"Aha! Kriers Cards and Comics! I'll go there!"
So my mom took me the 15 minute drive and dropped me off. I was amazed how many poke' fans were there, there were about fifty people jampacked into the size of a living room, it was amazing!
The first round started, I was ready to rock! I was paired with a trainer who was pretty experienced. I found out that I was playing completely wrong, so he helped me to learn. Once I learned I battled someone else and won! It was a sad yet promissing day for me! From then on, I went to the pokemon league every week! It was especially fun when I got to go to the prereleases that the card shop held about once a month, or whenever a new set came out. The first pre-release I ever went to was about a year or two later, it was the fire-red, leaf-green sets.
The following years would prove to be a series of me getting away from Pokemon, then backing away. For now, I hope to remain a poke fan until college ends! It's gonna be tough but with all the new stuff coming out, and my new pokemon mmorpg to be released in the summer, what could go wrong?!
So you see, I like pokemon for the legacy and impact its had on my life...
-Plo Koon
