Oh god, it never fucking ends with me.
4-5 years old
>pokemon hits USA, immediately love it
>parents won't buy me gameboy/games
>plenty of other merch though
>get poster of all 150(movie wasn't announced yet)
>spend hours staring at it
>memorize their names and numbers
>spout that shit 24/7
about 5-12
>play pretend with friends
>sometimes trainers, mostly daycare
>refer to things/animals as the closest pokemon we can think of
>play in public, more variety than pets + backyard critters
>became more of a site-seeing game as we grow up
>maintain entire "second layer of life" in the pokemon world even after our group stops playing that game entirely(we still LARPed Naruto even by the end of highschool)
9
>first research paper, everyone assigned a rainforest animal
>I get leaf-cutter ant, lame
>fuck that, do paper on scyther
>works cited consists of pokedex, games, anime, and some fanfic
>field trip
>4 hour bus ride away
>want to sleep on the way back, can't
>sing jigglypuff's song very loudly until I pass out
>mom was a chaperone, let me do that shit
idk exactly when, late gen 2/early gen 3
>finally learn tcg rules
>play with friends
>kanto badges pinned inside 1 of their binders
>ask, learn about the leagues
>remember seeing commercials for them before but never cared
>dedicate 1 hour each weekend to ask every bookstore, library, and community center in the phone book if they had a pokemon league
>basically dead game at this point
>didn't think of nor was directed to comic/game stores
>keep circling back when I get to the end just incase for 6 months
10
>world championship in Orlando
>convince parents to go
>bring entire tcg collection
>find check-in desk, demand they let me play
>staff explain why I can't, parents back them up
>some couple overhears, say they run a league a town up from mine
>finally join league, super stoked to earn real badges
>badge pins that season are just pokeballs
>sulk for a few weeks (still had fun overall)
there's more but not as good
