"Get up and walk, find new friends and why I won't fly. Reflections on why I play."

#PokemonGO: My sons were in a major accident back in 2016 and almost died. The week before the accident Pokemon Go launched and we had planned to play it together. So when it came time to do Physical Therapy, the secret to get them out of their wheelchairs was to allow them to play Pokemon Go. We walked all over the hospital (which had pokestops inside) and caught pokemon. Since that time, my kids and I have played nearly everyday. It has been a great way for me to connect to my kids and their friends. So I have no shame as a 40 year old business executive playing Pokemon Go. I have fond memories of driving around with my kids hunting for the next 5 star raid or shiny. I have also connected with co-workers, friends at church and people all over the world through the game. I have joined random groups all over the world for raids and events. I typically buy 9 incubators on long run Saturdays to hatch all my eggs and my kids and I sit around and watch them hatch when I am done.With my job, I also find myself traveling the world. This creates a unique "non-fly" opportunity to catch regional pokemon to trade back home with my kids and friends, spin gyms and meet people. Recently I was in the Philippines and, as usual, I asked people if they are into Pokemon Go. I was struggling to find people on the island I was visiting, so I turned to facebook and found a Raid group. They quickly invited me for a raid hour and I walked with them as we hit raid after raid. We then traded pokemon for an hour trying to get some to go lucky since most of mine were 15,000km away. I was impressed with this group of young men and women as we talked about their local community rules. Since they are not financially stable, they give everyone an 8 hour chance in a gym to get their 50 coins a day. They also had strong opinions about Fly. They believe Fly has ruined the game. People fly into their island and kick them out of gyms and even push them out of raids with their friends. They told me many people have lost the desire to play because of fly. They love the hunt and experience of travel all over the island looking for the best gyms, raids and pokemon. They've pushed to get to 40 so they could expand their small islands pokemon potential with new gyms and stops. It was inspiring to see them in action and listen to them talk. Their desire to get out and walk, reminded me of how I got my kids out of their wheelchairs to hunt their first Pikachu. Imagine if I had let them sit in their beds and fly instead of walking.In the end I picked up every Asia regional pokemon and snagged a couple Terrakions for my growing legendary collection. But for a few moments we were not from different countries or even spoke different languages, I didn't just fly in and play and go, we were just trainers with a mission or I dare say--Friends.Gotta catch 'em all friends. via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/34SRMAa