Nick - Pokemon!

To most of you it was probably a phase. You brought the cards to school, or you played Red or Blue version as a kid. But Pokemon was something I never grew out of. We got to hear about Brendan's love for Harry Potter, and now it's my turn.

I don't remember how old I was.. My parents got me Pokemon Red; my second ever game for my GameBoy Pocket. And I dived right in. I couldn't read. I had no idea what was going on, story-wise. But I knew that I had a Pokemon of my very own. I think I can trace the moment that I started loving Pokemon back to when I got to choose my first one. Basically I stumbled around in the grass outside of Pallet Town, oblivious to what anybody was trying to say to me. I battled on with my Squirtle, a duo determined to conquer this small patch of grass.

I somehow got further into the game and built a team; I remember very little about all of this. I know I had a Pidgey, a Vileplume, and two Gravelers; it wasn't a very good team. But it was mine, and nothing brought my childish mind more pleasure than having a team of my very own. I loved the feeling of catching a new Pokemon to put on my team.

And then I got older, and I learned how to read, and I learned which moves were awesome and which type was strong against another type, and started to implement some strategy. I still love putting together combinations of Pokemon, seeing which ones work well with one another. There are a limitless number of ways you can build your team, and that facts still bears weight in my mind.

I feel that as I grow older, my relationship with Pokemon changes to reflect that, but the core feeling hasn't changed. There is still no more powerful feeling that starting out with just myself, my first Pokemon, and a world filled with limitless potential. I associate it with the feeling of adventure. Like the beginning of summer, the beginning of a game of Pokemon invigorates me. I want to smell the summer air, start an adventure, and dive into that first patch of grass, just me and my Pokemon.

-Nick.