To begin, I will say that I am not the biggest Pokemon fan in the world. I haven't played every game, I don't have all the cards, I've never personally caught them all, and my room isn't decorated wall to wall with items. But my 20 years of life have still been very positively affected by the 20 years that Pokemon has been with us, as I believe has been the case with many other people.

I first started playing with Pokemon when I was in kindergarten and early elementary school. My passion started simple: collecting the cards. I collected with my friends, and whenever we had any money, we went to the small local store to get another pack. They looked so awesome, with all the colors and powers. My friends and I never really played the card game, but we collected and traded, seeing who had the cooler cards and wanting to get more.

From there I started to collect little trinkets and items of Pokemon: the small plastic toys and clothes. I had a few shirts and a couple hats that I would wear, and a few toys I would play with. Whenever I was playing with my friends--recess or play dates--it would almost always involve Pokemon.

Then the video games started. I will admit, I was a bit behind on the game when it came to collecting the electronic Pokemon. I knew of the games, but my first game was Pokemon Ruby on a Gameboy Advanced SP. From there, I kept playing and playing, getting the next systems in order to play the next games. And I still have my original Pokemon Ruby.

I also began watching the shows and movies, seeing Ash collect his own Pokemon. I watched the first 8 movies, and have seen bits of the ones after those. With those first 10 years of movies, I too watched the shows, seeing Ash go on his own adventures. I am known to quote Pokemon 3: The Movie multiple times, and sing the flute song played at the end of Pokemon: The Movie 2000.

To this day, I still find Pokemon items to collect. At 6 Flags, I won two plushes. I made a tiny ceramic Pokeball in an art class. I have nearly 15 hundred cards and three hundred figurines. And I am most definitely getting the new Pokemon Sun or Pokemon Moon game when they come out.

But more than just a hobby and collection, Pokemon has meant a lot to me. A fictional world with amazing animals as best friends? Sign me up! It gave me a place to escape to when the world around me wasn't what I wanted. When moving across the country, I felt completely abandoned. I was leaving all my friends, an amazing neighborhood, and felt like the world was messing with me. But I could always go into my game and be there. I remember one night I stayed up late under the covers trying to catch a Poochyena. These kids were going out on adventure and saving the world and having fun and making connections, and I that was amazing to me.

So whether you are a gen-one-er or love all 700 plus Pokemon, whether you collect the cute Pokemon or go for the best E.V.s, whether you've just started playing or whether you've been in it since the first game, Pokemon has taught us all to be the very best we can be.

Train on.