"In January, I still won't have grown up; only gotten older, with Ash and Pikachu."

I remember watching Poke'mon for the first time on Kids WB; tuning the TV to channel 5 and blasting the theme song as loud as I could immediately after coming home from school.I remember the excitement of asking my parents for a pack of cards if we went to the corner store, or 7-11; and the smell of freshly opened card packs wafting up as I tore away the plastic haphazardly to see if I'd pulled any of my favorite monsters.I remember getting Yellow and being absolutely obsessed, battling and trading over classic link cable with my little brother to get all the mons I was missing. I remember teachers chatting idly about how sick they were of the craze, taking away cards and gameboys until the end of the school day. Boys and girls both flaunted binders of cards, sometimes just stacks of them held together with rubber bands. Few of us knew how to actually play.I remember my father sitting down with me to learn the card game; I started with the magmar starter deck. There was a 2 player mat, we sat at the kitchen table and it was such a complex game for me but I tried to hard to learn. I remember learning to play marbles, getting that absolutely humungous poke'mon marble shooter, and being proud of my poke'mon marble collection. I remember naming a yellow tang fish I'd gotten Pikachu.I had all the VHS tapes, even the ones that came in those special starter themed carrying cases. I remember the Ranma 1/2 and Kimba commercials at the end of the VHS tapes, stopping them, rewinding them, and then going onto the next episodes on repeat. I went through TWO poke'mon the first movie VHS tapes, and would set up my poke'mon action figures to sit and watch the movie with me. I remember getting my moving electronic pikachu plush with its light up cheeks and my brother had the mew one.I remember playing silver, and crystal. Seeing the second movie in theatres. Emerald was the first game I ever beat in a single night- one sitting, from 8PM to 6:30AM. I'd never done that before, with any game. I remember waking up early to go to my local gamestop to pick up pokemon diamond and pearl, getting the most awful, TERRIBLE DS stylus pens ever produced and being ecstatic over them.I remember being in my first year of college and finding my old copy of fire red, and restarting. Going through my kanto journey once again between classes- and often, instead of doing homework or studying.I'm nearing 30 now. Poke'mon has been with me for as long as I can remember. I still remember watching ash shout to that flock of Spearow that he was going to be the greatest poke'mon master of all time, and Pikachu jumping in to save him.Next month, Ash will be moving on, and so will Pikachu. Over thanksgiving, I bought, beat, and 100% completed poke'mon scarlet. So many things about my life, and the franchise, have changed; the world of 2022 is so much different. Being able to look up any question on poke'mon I have would have amazed me at 4 or 5 years old.Next month, when Ash and Pikachu say their goodbyes, I'll say goodbye back to them. We've all gotten older, but I'm not letting go of the great times Poke'mon has brought me. Through all its forms of media, I'm legitimately grateful for the creative minds behind this series, and to Ash and Pikachu for being great role models for friendship. Goodbye, Ash and Pikachu. You will never be forgotten. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/maBdh62