Quoted By:
I have played pokemon since I was ten, and it has always been there for me when things were hard to bear. I was so excited to play Diamond when it came out when I was in college-- the online trading and battling seemed like a whole new era for the game. At the same time in coursework, I realized I had the opportunity to go down a new life path, something I'd never seen myself doing, but that I felt I would deeply love and be skilled at. But I was a kid from the middle of nowhere and people I looked up seemed to discourage me, saying I'd need to learn a lot of languages and travel often, spending a lot of time abroad. And then in Diamond, I met someone who did exactly those things, freely and happily. And for the first time Pokemon encouraged me to think, "I can do that."
Several languages and years abroad later, I'm a tenure-track professor in that field. No matter what happens tomorrow, Shirona, thank you forever for being an inspiration.
