"I reached level 40 without joining a team (plus my personal thoughts/experience on and with Pokémon GO, a quick Silph Road gear review, and more!)."

#PokemonGO: Hey fellow travelers,This is my first reddit post, and I'm excited that it could be for this. In order to make this an appropriate post for r/TheSilphRoad, I want this post to be not only my story, but also a discussion about the state of the game, the experiences/challenges of those who choose not to engage in gym battles, and really anything else that comes up.I wanted to get this post up at a good time and with a decent amount of information/context as I am about to head to dinner, however feel free to ask me any other questions my post doesn't address.Background: This is actually my third Pokémon GO account. I started playing Pokémon GO on release day, having played my first account for about two days and my second for about three days (my first account was Mystic, as I thought that when legendaries were eventually released they would be exclusive to each team. My second was Instinct as I quickly recognized that in my area [as with most] it was severely underrepresented and, using the previous thought process, wanted to set myself up to potentially get a bird that fewer people would have).On July 12th I created this account fully intending to join Instinct, as I didn't like my username (which couldn't be changed at the time) for the other account. By this time many people had reached the mid teens. I was severely behind, so I didn't bother with joining a team. In the meantime, I was having so much fun hunting for Pokémon (both rare and common) that I kept putting off joining a team (in addition to getting an idea of how my friends were aligned so I could play with them). Nonetheless, I kept up to date with the mechanics of gym battling, as I didn't want to fall behind when I finally was ready.Eventually, it got to a point that when I would see other players and they would ask me "Which team are you on?", I was proud to be able to say "I haven't joined one yet." As I leveled up and became more of a potential gym threat, my friends would encourage me more and more to join their respective teams. It was around the time I reached the late 20s that I began to think I was possibly one of the highest level people playing who had not joined a team. I reached level 30 in September, and it was at that time that I became set on my play style -- I would not be joining a team.Realistically I was expecting someone to beat me to level 40, as I began to see the first wave of those players come in before winter and was certain there would be someone in there who didn't join a team. However, I began to think that the play style would work to my advantage -- who would put the work in to get to such a high level but have no way to show it off?I reached level 36 in December, having gained roughly 2.7 million XP during the Thanksgiving event. I felt very close but realized I was still immensely far away.Much grinding occurred between then and now, including roughly 5 million XP during the Eggstravaganza. The grind finally ended today, May 10th, 2017 at 4:45 PM EST.EDIT: More info:My motivation to play is driven by and large by catching perfect IV Pokémon. The dex was a motivating factor for me for awhile as it became a competition between me and two friends. Once I completed the gen 1 regional dex with Chansey (after over 1,000 egg hatches), I focused on XP grinding while still looking for uncommon and rare Pokémon. My (truthfully unrealistic) goal is to have a complete living dex of perfect IV Pokémon. However, with shiny Pokémon soon to come in full, I will also have the goal of a complete shiny living dex, which is a lot more achievable.I own a GO+ and do much of my grinding with it, it was well worth the $35, though it is not perfect and has many issues that need to be resolved. I will probably use it less now that I can shift my focus away from grinding.HumorSometimes, I will click on a gym just to get this message and a laugh http://ift.tt/2r4Tkna I imagine conversations between people who ask me what I do as a trainer and myself https://youtu.be/8INAUHsxO6E?t=2125 (skip to 35:25 should it not go there automatically)Silph Road Gear ReviewI purchased this tee from the Silph Road gear shop http://ift.tt/2quRRcG got it as a gift for myself before reaching 40, a way to identify myself to other travelers, a way to feel like I represent my "team" (hence the color), and as a way to support the Road, as I have learned so much from this subreddit and am a major consumer of information put out by the Silph Road team. I highly recommend buying something from the shop (should you be able to afford it), both to identify yourself and support the Road.Full disclosure, I love the shirt and have worn it often (as pointed out by my friends) since I've gotten it. However, the shirt is not the best quality. This is not a reflection on the Silph Road however, as it is manufactured by Threadless. While the shirt is soft, it is on the thin side and will definitely will not stand up well to the test of many heavy washes. The graphic on the shirt is not especially well printed, though I prefer it over heavier, plasticky prints.One last (possibly quite important) thing to point out to /u/dronpes or other moderators, when on thesilphroad.com homepage, I believe there is no direct link to the gear shop. In fact, the only way I have been able to get to the gear shop page is to google it specifically. Having a link on the homepage would surely increase sales even if only slightly :)I will edit this post once again should I think of anything else important to add, thanks for reading!EDIT 2I've had a few people ask me about the Pokémon I power up as well as my perfect IV Pokémon. I only power up my perfect IV Pokémon (the others in my top 12 were caught as such), and I have 24 of them. Here is a gallery with all of them (note: I have not powered up Spinarak, Hoothoot, Spearow, or Staryu yet as I was holding off so I could utilize their respective candies for evolves to ensure I was able to reach 40): http://ift.tt/2r4Oh5R: http://ift.tt/2q4MNuh http://ift.tt/2pATjGi via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2q4CuX0