Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon... Where do I even begin with you? Pokemon Red/Blue came out when I was 7, and who's to say I was having a rough patch in my life. You figure being 7 I'd have no cares in the world, going to school like a normal kid every weekday, and being outside or playing with friends on the weekends. But unlike a lot of 7 year olds, I was going through a like changing event... the passing of my father. I had actually picked up the first Pokemon game I would have ever played with my dad the day it came out, Pokemon Blue. Blue was and is my favourite color, so I had to get it. But of course I had to be difficult and Charmander was and still is my most favourite Pokemon ever. I remember exactly, I had just beaten Misty by catching a Bellsprout right past the Nugget Bridge, and right when I finished talking to Bill, I heard a noise coming from my parents room. I saw my dad sleeping on the floor, or what I thought was sleeping. I was in the hospital in and out for two long weeks. When I went to visit and wait for him, Pokemon was my savoir. It put me in as much as a relaxed mood as I could be in, just hoping that catching all of the Pokemon would help my dad to wake up. Here's to say that was not the case, but Pokemon quite honestly got me through some big bumps in my life, and still to this day do I feel more relaxed than ever when I play it. Thank you Pokemon, for helping the kids like me out every step of the way.

Well Pokemon has changed my life in many ways. I have had a rough life it hasn't always been easy Pokemon has helped me out through depression I don't know what i would do without it. I have played it all my life since red version came out!  Pokemon has taught me valuable lessons like hard work is worth the effort and friends will help you through the hard times in your life. Me and my brother grew up with pokemon and it has helped our lives in so many ways its unreal. when I was in the 6th grade we had a housefire as i was watching my house burn down i realized i had my gameboy advanced sp in my back pocket and a pokemon game in it all I had was the clothes I was wearing and my pokemon game its like pokemon was always there to help me out   I have been made fun of in school all my life and pokemon has helped me get through all the hate it has made me a better person . Pokemon has helped me through my tough life if it wasn't for my family and pokemon
I wouldn't be here today I thank the Pokemon Company and Game Freak for creating such a awesome game.

Pokemon red was the first one i have ever played. It was amazing. Was one of the first games i have ever beaten also. It made me communicate and become less shy as i would talk to random people i would see playing it and ask for trades to try to collect ALL the Pokemon. 

It's been years since I first encountered Pokemon Red Version. I was five years old when I waltzed into Target and begged my mom to buy me the newest Pokemon game! I whipped out my huge, fat gray Gameboy and plead my case, she finally caved and got it for me! I was ecstatic! And that wasn't even the best part, she later took me to K-B Toys in the local mall and there I laid my eyes on someone that will be in my life even now, as a 19-year-old college student, a large Charizard Plush toy! From that moment on, I wasn't Kyle, I was Kyle & Charizard; in school, around town, etc. Years would go by, and I would eventually become engrossed with the game and everything about the Pokemon Culture. It was my great escape. I truly love Pokemon and still do. Although, through my life that bond would be strained. I would wake up to my mother and father fighting, words like daggers being thrown at those who gave me life. I was only a mere child. I didn't want my parents to fight, but what was I to do? The only thing I could do was hold my Charizard, "Will everything be okay? ... I hope so Charizard..." I would be rolling around in bed not being to sleep a wink until i heard the door slam.... And just like that, my life would change forever. I lived with my mom for the most of my life, I would visit my father on school breaks, I would always pretend I was flying on the back of my Charizard when I was on the plane to visit my pops in New England. I would soar high above the clouds among the Pidgeots and Fearow, the Unfezant and the Braviary. I would always be happy when I had my Charizard! Chunks of time would pass and I would enjoy the time Charizard and I would spend. Middle school was always rough, and it was just a speed bump for Charizard and I. We had overcome so much and this was no exception. My older sister who I was so close with just graduated from High School and now she was gone too, leaving my mother and myself. I would spend hours talking to momma and Charizard altogether. My mother finally came up with a question, "Hey Kyle, why haven't you named that Charizard yet??" Now this was big for me, the first time my mom hadn't called another Pokemon Pikachu! I was thrown for a loop. My god! I haven't named my best friend, through 2 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and later, 3 high schools. I spent days thinking of a name. I had always imagined a soft spoken, music to my ears melody of a voice, that lovely "Chaaarrrr" I had always imagined stuck with me, until it hit me! Pyrra. Another milestone for Chariz- oh, Pyrra and I. High school was always something changing. I always would come home to Pyrra sitting on my bed, waiting for a conversation about my day. I would tell her everything, from starting on the Varsity Football team, to making the Color Guard for my school's Air Force JROTC program. I would have a massive group of friends for the first time in a long while! I had a pack. People I could listen to music, hang out with during lunch and everything. It was a great feeling! Yet again, things would come crashing down. Another move. This time, I would be moving to New England to live with my dad. Neat. As a junior in High School, I would hop on Pyrra's wings and she would take flight, climbing high above these big puffy white clouds. And here we are, a new town, new school all over again. Coming from a school of 3000 to 250 for total enrollment, all the seniors would ridicule me for being who I was as a person. This had never been a problem before, so naturally, Pyrra and I talked as usual. Senior year rolled around and it was the best year of my life! From winning the State Championship for Football, setting records in Track and Field, meeting the girl of my dreams, (who Pyrra was excited to have another gal to chat up about Pokemon and music and everything!) It finally came time to apply to colleges and I was freaking out about the essays, money, everything was always on my mind. But things would end up working out for this football-playing furry. I got accepted to where I am now. This is who I am now. I sit at my desk in my dorm room pondering about how Pokemon has truly meant something to me. All I would have to do is look down to this great, fuzzy Charizard plushie in my lap. Pyrra would be my inspiration.

My entry:

When i was 5 my grand-dad gave me my big brothers Game boy with Pokemon Yellow. As i was younger, i didn't understand it, so i got stuck in the house in between viridian forest and pewter city. I was stuck there for aaaages, then a few years later i finally started to understand it and i found out. Ever since that day i have loved Pokemon, and i will continue to enjoy and love Pokemon. I do get made fun of in school, but i really don't care because as long as i'm happy i really couldn't care about others. I hope you would pick me because i would appreciate it and it would be a great reason for me to start a LP :)

~Lazycoryz

Pokémon came out when I was only a 1 year old infant so I had no memory of its debut. But when I was 4 years old I remember my grandma bringing me a super Nintendo with a few games, and a few movies for my birthday. We didn't have cable and had to go to the local Block Buster to rent shows and movies and I didn't know what Pokémon was, until I seen the cover of the VHS tape titled "Pokémon: Electric shock showdown!" I was intrigued and didn't know what it was. Later that day I sat and watched my very first episode of Pokémon. The episode was about Ash and when he challenged Lt. Surge at his gym and how Pikachu grew stronger in bond with Ash knocking away that thunderstone saying "I can beat that Raichu as i am now!" showed how strong a resolve Pikachu had, Pikachu became my favorite Pokémon from there on. Needless to say it was the turning point in my life which sparked my love for Pokémon. When my grandma asked me what I wanted for Christmas I told her I wanted more Pokémon. That Christmas wasn't as amazing though, instead of Pokémon, she brought me the anime movie "My neighbor Totoro" I knew right away it wasn't Pokémon but graciously thanked her. I waited til my mom had the money to buy a new episode on VHS tape. We were really poor so we lived pay check to pay check and rarely had any money for anything but food, rent, and bills, my father was in jail so I never talked to him or got anything from him so we did what we could to live. Later for my 6th birthday my mom pulled through and bought me a new tape, it was "Mystery at the lighthouse" this episode really enticed me into Pokémon, the giant "monster" was amazing to me as I didn't know what Pokémon it was and made me want to watch even more to figure out what it was. It wasn't until I was 9 that I had found out there were games for Pokémon, I had learned from a friend who had Pokémon silver, he told me there were games before even the show, which had really surprised me. From that day on I put on my wish list every year: "Gameboy with Pokémon game!". But because we were so poor it took a while but finally by my 12th birthday my parents bought me "Pokémon Ruby version", with a black Gameboy SP. It was the most exciting day ever, I couldn't wait to play it! Later that day I started my very first Pokémon adventure ever, and also my very first step into what shaped my child hood and made me who I am today. I chose Mudkip as my starter, my very first Pokémon ever was "KILLER" the Mudkip. ever since then I have played and bought every Pokémon game. Even to this day I still have that Pokémon Ruby file, sometimes I start it up and look at my very first Pokémon ever, "KILLER" the Swampert.

How has Pokemon affected you?:  well, Pokemon has affect me in a great way. when Red and Blue first came out, it looked like alot of fun and got really into it and the more i played including at a park or at school, i made many friends just from the pokemon battle's and using my favorite pokemon in all those battles, Charizard. so thanks to Pokemon, in it's own way, i was able to make many friends who i have known for years and only becoming even better friends with them.

What have you learned from Pokemon?: What i have learned from pokemon is that you never give up and always go the extra mile to reach your goal and to make great effort in anything you do if it be work, school, or anything. what i have also learned is that even when times are tough and seem hard to get through, you know that you'll have friends there to help you out no matter what.

What is your favorite Pokemon experience?: my favorite pokemon experience was when i was able to hatch my very first pokemon egg aside from togepi back in gold and silver. when it first hatched, i was happy in a way that i managed to start breeding pokemon for the first time even though i didn't know about it at first til much later but that first egg i hatched gave me endless idea's of new ways how to train and raise my pokemon to the best of their abilities and give them good moves that helped me win several battles. i train them in a normal way while not doing EV training, even though i still don't know what it is or how to do it but all in all, from hatching that one pokemon egg, i was able to become a even better pokemon player and learned to have more fun in just about everything i did.

Let me see.. Pokemon has been in my life from the very beginning. I got Red version and my brother got Blue version and we played together. It was the second hand-held game i had played in my life so far, note that i was 7 or 8 years old at the time (don't quite remember if i got it before or after my B-day). It was the first game that i really liked and enjoyed you can say, but that was just the beginning. As my brother gave me his Bkue version, i started a new game and was on my way to beat it. then Yellow came out and it was my favorite version yet. I was glad i could have got all 3 starters and the first game i got my entire team to lvl 100. As the games went on and generations 2-5 came, my best experience in pokemon is just being able to play through them and meeting new people as i grew up too. i got some of my best friends from playing pokemon. Also, i couldn't leave out this, even though its a total switch in the mood, but pokemon has gotten me through some of my pets deaths. it was the one major thing that helped me relax and not get too emotional over them being gone. i mean yeah, its tragic but i knew they were in a better place when i played pokemon. I even nick-named some of my pokemon after them. And the games have been there when nothing else was. Even though im 19 now, and my parents tell me to stop playing it because its old and the same thing all the time and a waste of time and money, also most of my friends stopped playing it, i'm still playing it, because its the best game, and one of the best things that have happened in my life.

So i'd have to thank game freak for this wonderful game.

How has Pokemon affected you? 

It start around 1998 in October 2 I just turned eight years old. Pokemon Red and Blue just came out in America. I was so excited because I knew  my mother got me them for my birthday. I would always go looking for new friends in and out of school to either trade or battle. I say even just by pulling out my old GameBoy people hearing the pokemon music made them want to come talk to me. Pokemon really helped me get out of my shell. It affected me in ways I never though a video game could. I made some long time friends through the games. People I have known for I  since third grade, so now it would be 14 years I've known some of my best friends who are very important in my life. My parents weren't around a lot even though I was so young. By making those friends they became my second family, always took care of me. Even called me their adopted child XD.

My high school years were rough having to move a couple of times across the city. It was harder to see my friends because we had to go to different schools. I began to close up and put that shell on again, the only things I had to look forward after school were my Sapphire Version and Pokemon anime. We didn't have money for new games anymore since we were now living on welfare. Then one day I seen Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were coming out I was so excited. I was so excited even though I knew we did have money for a DS or one of the games. A few months go by I come home from school, my mom has been working at a new job. She told me to look on the table and BAM! got me a DS. Finally got Pearl Version soon after that which I always took to school. Made some new friends in a sorta unofficial club in our schools art room. People would bring there GameCube and we would all be either playing Smash Bros. Melee or Pokemon on the DS's. To end this I would like to say Pokemon has got me through tough times in my life. I've met very good friends though these video games that I'm proud to call my family. Thank you Game Freak and Pokemon Company!

The best experiance of pokemon is getting Sapphire and almost getting my  fist shiny. it was a Shiny Geodude and i was so close to catching it! i had its health in the red and i was throughing Ultra balls, and my best friend was there too so he was watching me try to catch it, and it would not stay in the ball. i has 3 ultra balls left and i through one and when it got out, it ran from battle never to be seen again :(. i guess that wouldn't be the best experiences i had but one of the stressfull ones. i guess one of the best experiences i did have was getting my Blaziken to lvl 100 in emerald. A funny experience was when Diamond and Pearl came out, my best friend got a copy of a shiny /lugia his friend had caught in emerald and made copies of it on emerald and gave me one (i did the same thing). So when we transfered them over to our Diamond versions, we both went to the GTS and just serched for pokemon and when one of us seen a shiny, we yelled out the pokemon that was shiny. Me and him would fight to get whatever shiny it was. like this Regice. the person wanted a lvl 50 and up Doduo or some level and higher (higher than 40) and me and him would put up a lugia, try and get the pokemon and trade with that person. We couldn't trade with this person with the Regice because it has already been traded or there was a glitch or something. But we did that with any shiny on there. after Platinum came out, we still went to the GTS sometimes, but we went down to the undercground and took each others flags.. until onother one of my friends came over then my flag/base was a hotspot. Haha.

     I remember the Red & Blue days like it was yesterday. I've yet to come across any other game that makes me feel the way I did when I first touched base with the Blue version. From the time I chose my starter, Charmander, to the time I defeated the elite 4, every step was made into a whole new world, a whole new escape for an 11 year old boy. I couldn't watch the television series as much as I wished because of the family abuse that came from my step-dad. Masculinity was his only concern and he maintained that through rules; unnecessary ones at that. Needless to say, the only TV in the house was reserved for football.

     That didn't stop me from gaming though. I can't count how many batteries were invested into the Blue version. Me and my trusty Gameboy Color were getting it done. I never got to experience trading though. I was never allowed to take the Gameboy to school so I never got to play with pokemon like Machamp or know how cool it was to own an eevee evolution because you couldn't just "use" a stone on them back then. I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains so walking to a friends house was highly out of the question. There was nothing within walking distance.

     Pokemon was an immense escape for me and still to this day, I will find ways to play older pokemon versions. I may not be able to relive the excitement of the Red & Blue versions, not to mention stomach the old graphics, but I still feel that the pokemon games are some of the most valuable RPGs anyone could ever play. My need to play spread to my neice, who one day, watched me play a pokemon game for hours at the young age of 7 or 8. Now she's 13 years old, going on 14, and a Pokemaniac! I recently gave her my pokemon card collection because I'm 25 years old now and there's not much I can do with them anymore. She can get more use out of them than I can, even if it's a completely one-sided trade at school. You know she will!

What was my favorite Pokemon experience? I have a few, and it is nice to have a place to list them.

My first experience with Pokemon was with the anime.  I have always enjoyed cartoons.  I was also fascinated by animals enough that I was planning on majoring in biology if not math.  During one field trip with the math team of my high school, I found a poster with the original one hundred fifty one pokemon.  Since it was the creativity aspect combined with the animal aspect of Pokemon that first attracted me, I said that the poster was enough to make me happy and wouldn't buy anything more.  Less than a year later, I had used copies of Pokemon Red and Blue.  I have bought at least one game from every generation since then.

My first memorable mistake was on Pokemon Blue.  I was still using logic learned from the animated series and thought that abra was a really rare pokemon.  When I found one in the wild, I used my Master ball.  I ended up battling mewtwo with Ultra balls.

My first memorable shiny encounter took place on Pokemon Sapphire.  It was also the very first wild encounter with a roselia.  I didn't know about shinies back then and only caught it because I wanted to catch as many pokemon as I could.  The funny part is that roselia's pokedex entry mentions alternative colors in that game.  The next roselia I encountered had the normal colors.  I thought the different colors were due to gender or some other quality.  I can't even remember how many hours I spent in that little patch of grass looking for a roselia with the same colors as the first one I found.  I would come up with theories only to have them proved wrong.  I don't have that roselia anymore because I deleted that Sapphire file without transferring any pokemon to another Pokemon game.

I hope this is okay,

Ms. TimelessDragon