gotta catch em all

So, as you know, I am a nerd lol... and I do love Pokemon.  I finished Pokemon Shield a while ago and eventually completed the Pokedex.  Like many people my age, I grew up with Pokemon and was a kid during the height of Pokemania in the late 90s/early 2000s.  I started watching the anime in the mornings before school when I was in 5th grade, and that Christmas my dad got me Pokemon Red on Game Boy.  I ended up playing Red, Blue, and Yellow... stood in line with my mom to get Silver the day it and Gold launched.  But I fell off before Crystal launched, and I don't really know or remember why.  I did get a Game Boy Advance (two actually -- the original model and then later the SP, the classic Nintendo special edition one), but I never Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald or even FireRed or LeafGreen.  I feel like a lot of people had a similar experience... Pokemon never stopped being popular, of course, but that was truly the point where Pokemania was kind of over.  I guess I just thought I'd grown out of Pokemon.  That was kind of it until 2013.  I was on Tumblr at that point, and everyone was talking about X and Y, and it looked so good!  I didn't have a DS or 3DS at that point, but I decided that I really wanted to.  I really wanted to play Pokemon again.  I even bought a probably fake copy of FireRed to tide me over and I really enjoyed that (until the cartridge deleted my save file lol)... but I needed to get back into it for real.  I didn't know why I needed it, but I just felt like I did.  I got my 3DS for Christmas that year... there was a Black Friday sales bundle on the system and two games available on the walmart website, and my mom and I made it happen.  I had to defend the fact that, poor as we were, I owned that system... people made so many comments and asked so many questions because poor people are apparently not allowed to own anything or have fun ever.  But I put up with it, because I had Pokemon again, and it was fun and it was good.  It made me happy.  Depression made me lose interest in the game a few times, so it took me forever to finish it... but I did eventually, and I even completed my Pokedex.  I was truly proud of that accomplishment!  Since that point, I've know that I had no desire to give up Pokemon again... I've played Y, Omega Ruby, SoulSilver, Sun, and Ultra Moon on my 3DS (as well Animal Crossing -- a franchise I am fairly new to but ended up falling in love with... expect a post about that after the new game comes out next month, lol).  When I started working, my first BIG purchase was a Nintendo Switch with Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu.  I enjoyed that game a lot, but haven't yet finished it.  Pokemon Shield, for all it's detractors and admitted imperfections, really captured me... and I can't wait for the expansion pass later this year.  I'm just so glad I got back into this franchise!  One of the good things in life.