Reflections: Pokemon for All Ages

When I was a kid, everybody played Pokemon. It wasn’t just for the nerdy kids, it was for everybody. Adults always thought that it was a “kid thing”, and that we’d grow out of it. However, that’s not true for many of us, and those of us that don’t still play will still say they love Pokemon and tell you their favorite and trade stories. Nobody realized that those of us who grew up with Pokemon would keep with it when we grew up. Why is Pokemon such an important part of my generation?

I started playing Pokemon around five years old. I remember my sister wouldn’t let me watch the show with her, so I would watch it through a glass door that lead into our living room whenever she was in there. One day she finally let me play her games, as she started to think she was “too old” for Pokemon. I was immediately pulled into it. I had learned to read very early, often reading to my classmates during storytime in preschool, and Pokemon just made me even better. When I could go to school and talk to all of my friends about it, we all became even more involved.

This is the experience that so many people around my age have had. And as we grew up, we learned more about Pokemon. We learned more about type advantages, strategy, some even moved to EV and IV training. We learned that there was much more to Pokemon than just collecting and battling our little monsters. Everybody experienced Pokemon in their own way: some just played the games (whether it be the main games or the spinoffs as well), some watched the show, some got into competitive battling and training, and some like me began to roleplay as either trainers or Pokemon themselves. The world was so large, so expansive, that it just drew us in and captured our imaginations.

Now as young adults, many of us still follow Pokemon. When old games from our childhood get updated and re-released, we gobble them up to once again experience the whimsy we did as children. Though we may not have time to be as invested as when we were children, Pokemon taught us when we were growing up. The stories, monsters, and lessons earned Pokemon a valuable place into our hearts. Not many franchises can say they’ve done this as successfully as Pokemon has.

#reflections #pokemon #rpg