Pokemon has been a big part of my life ever since I was introduced to it in 5th grade back in 1998. It all started when my friend Trevor came up to me one day and said “Pikachuuuuu You’re electrocuted!” At first I was like “What? O_o” But then he told me all about this new TV show and game called Pokemon and I looked into it, and I was hooked ever since. If it wasn’t for Trevor, I might have seen Pokemon in a different way later and who knows what else.
Anyway, after that, I started playing the games nonstop starting with Red version. I was so into it, that I wanted to play the counterpart, Blue. I played both in every spare minute that I had. I also started to watch the anime as well at that time. I forgot what the first episode that I saw was, but it started with the original Kanto eps somewhere around the Lt. Surge Battle episode. I got deeper into Pokemon by starting to collect the cards. I was so fascinated with the cards that I wanted to get every card that was created. Even though I didn’t do just that, I still had fun collecting them and showing them off to all of my friends back in the day.
Johto rolled around in 2000 and I was extremely excited to see new Pokemon and new things. I got Gold and Silver, then eventually Crystal and played them for the longest time. I started looking online for cheats and such, and that’s when I rolled around the Pokemon sites and forums. Around 2002 I joined a few forums, but the main one I stuck with was Serebii Forums. Later in 2002 I then joined the SPP Chatroom and that’s where everything changed.
I started to become fascinated with the online Pokemon world, and I was always on the computer to see what the latest was for Pokemon. The chatrooms and forums were the two main places that I went to and became really in depth with them. I eventually got power on both the Serebii Chatroom and Forums, and things were going good from there. I was starting to become a part of the Pokemon world through this site.
Issues rose with Serebii and the whole chatroom/forum and I took a different approach and indirectly went my separate ways from there. I then created my own site with help from an online friend that I’ve known for a long time. Him and I started to work on a site called Brinstar Depths which is currently hosted by none other than our Arty. 😛 I also created a chatroom for my site, and it’s been a hit for a while now.
So, to wrap this all up, the Pokemon fandom led me from finding out what it was, to playing the games, to researching it on the internet, and finally to becoming someone on the internet. Who knows how my life would be if it wasn’t for Pokemon, or what I’d be doing instead. All I know is that Pokemon has changed my life, and will continue to change my life for a very long time.