It needs to be explained before I begin that I may have been missing out on a key part of childhood by not playing Pokémon. My younger brothers played it, my friends at school played it and eventually it wasn't something that I saw them doing all the time. Maybe they stopped playing altogether or maybe they played it whenever they were home. However, I don't think they stopped trying to be “the very best like no one ever was.” I got to Saint Martin’s University and sure enough there were people who still played it. One friend of mine put on the Pokémon movie and the room was filled, including myself.
Pokémon lovers have always been out there, usually behind a Gameboy or DS or maybe watching it on TV, but now they're coming outside in masses, and I'm one of them.
I had no idea the game was even coming out or what it was, but on July 6th, my brother - a lifelong Pokémon player - had the game, started telling me about it and the day that he and his friends had catching Pokémon around town. It involved actually moving around not your house (in fact you usually won't catch anything inside your house), but actually going outside and walking around your neighborhood and the town. I started becoming more interested but didn't want to get involved. It was a game for nerds, right? I also hear about the servers always being down so you can't even play it. After some more consideration, I downloaded it. I could always delete it if I wanted.
The first day of having it wasn't going so well. I was just in my house and it seemed like my brother was catching Pokémon left and right. I couldn't get a thing no matter how far I went in the house and I was ready to delete it, but then we decided to go down the street. Sure enough I started getting closer and closer and finally caught my first Pokémon. It was weird, and I wasn't ready to admit it, but it was fun. And then we saw another Pokémon ahead of us so we started walking towards a park that is further down the road and we got another. We started seeing some rarer ones, as my brother let me know, so we went even farther to catch those. What had started as a quick walk down the street, turned into an hour and a half, four-mile trek. I was really starting to like this.
The next day, we decided to go up to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and try and catch some there. When we got there, it was ridiculous because, at 10:30 p.m. (light wasn't a problem because the sun is always out during the summer in Alaska), there were people all over walking around looking for Pokémon. We would be walking and end up seeing another group across the street and just laugh because we both knew why we were out there. It was hard to accept at first, because I was playing a “nerd’s” game, but I know I'm not the only one who never played and is just now getting into it.
I love seeing people on Facebook and Twitter talk about Pokémon Go, especially the ones I never thought would…because I never would've seen myself playing it. All ages, all places, close friends, and even celebrities too. I find it really fascinating that we now have something that is pulling people away from the consoles and TV screens to get together with your friends, and actually get outside, and just catch some Pokémon.
