Pokemon Go: Coming Full Circle

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.

Good God on a roller coaster, so much has happened in this past week.

For starters, Pokemon Go has launched in the USA and with it came glitches, strange locations, and some rather hilarious findings. Pokemon Go has motivated people to explore unknown areas, exercise, and befriend others who want to be the very best.

This game has caused the franchise to come full circle and it’s absolutely wonderful.

When Pokemon first appeared in my childhood, everyone befriended each other over these creatures. The playground was filled with children trading cards, kids battling or trading over the cable link, and others gushing about how Mewtwo was better than Mew based on the first movie. I was one of those children; my first holographic card was a Mewtwo and my first card ever was a Ponyta given to me by a dear friend who moved away. I chose Squirtle because I loved the Water type, clung to streetlights’ glow for driving in the dark and past my bedtime, and hated Lance’s Dragonites terribly. The graphics didn’t matter to me as long as my Blastoise won the battles.

My childhood gave way to my teen years where my love for Pokemon waivered. I was an adolescent “too old” for Pokemon, but still had the guilty pleasure of whipping out the DS and training my Totodile to be a mighty Feraligator. The very few geeks I knew still clung to this game and we fought over a strange new feature called wireless combat. The cable links were tossed into the basement, no longer needed and the cards were stored away in the attic. The last card I ever collected was a promotional card of Entei from “Pokemon: Secret of the Unown”.

For the longest time I stayed away from Pokemon, keeping true to my attitude of being “too old” for the franchise. When I entered college my mind was absolutely blown at people my age (18 (if not older)) playing a game that was originally designed for children. I was unsure of how to respond to this, but I knew that I couldn’t keep away from the nostalgic franchise. I started to bring my DS more and learned about IV/EV teams and crafted my dream team that would have made my younger self awe at its power.

I’m now an adult. I have XY, Pokemon Go, and ORAS and plan on purchasing Pokemon Moon when it releases. On those games I have more shinys than my younger self could have ever dreamed of, a wonderful team, and the fantastic ability to play with Pokemon as those they were pets in real life. I treat them well and in turn, they help me bring my opponents ‘ HP to 0.

Other adults like me were introduced to Pokemon at a young age and I’m sure the majority of them have Pokemon Go. Because of this app, they can explore the world they never knew and make friends along the way. Some people have eliminated their depression, anxiety, or even learned to cope with their lives because of this app. It’s such a simple, wondrous thing that’s helping so many while broadening the virtual/augmented reality world.

Thank you, Pokemon for coming full circle from my childhood into my current adulthood and exposing me to this world we live in, the friendships I’ve culminated with people and Pokemon alike, and for crafting me into the woman I am today.

Thanks for reading tonight’s entry. Feel free to comment, critique, share, and subscribe.

So tell me, what do you think of Pokemon Go?