Professor Elm

I’m old enough to have been with Pokemon since the very beginning. I watched the anime when it first came to the US, I got my first Pokemon card from a friend and even started collecting those for a while (along with every piece of Pokemon merch I could find). I was especially big on ordering the latest Pokemon book from Scholastic (the ones that were mostly written by Tracey West) and even got shamed by one of my elementary school teachers for reading them up to sixth grade. (But that’s another story!)

Despite my self-proclaimed Pokemon Master title for everything I knew and collected related to Pokemon, for the longest time, I was not at all aware that handheld Pokemon games existed. (I suspect my dad knew about them and hid their existence from me since I did have a Nintendo 64 and the games for them, but they were very expensive at the time.) Not until the GBA rolled around that I finally got to try the newest games that were out: Pokemon Silver and Crystal, and that’s the time I got to really feel what every other kid was experiencing - going out on your own adventure together with your Pokemon the way Ash did in the show. 

To be honest, my first starter Pokemon wasn’t Totodile but Cyndaquil. I loved the little fire porcupine, but I admit I chose him because I thought burning everything down with fire moves would be the most effective way to win battles. (I was a kid, what do you expect? Didn’t everyone go through a pyromaniac phase? Just me? ...) I really loved those games and clocked over 800 hours on Crystal alone, which is why I strongly suspect that it was my first game, and not Silver. But then, I clocked quite a few hours on Silver as well, maybe 400? So it makes me wonder why I would spend that much time on it if I already went through Crystal. 

Anyway, fast forward to gen 4, the generation of advanced technology with touch screens in the introduction of the DS models. I remember being adamantly against wanting one because I didn’t like the idea of using a touch screen.  It was this time the Sinnoh games were introduced first, and I remember not feeling pumped about the games just because I knew I wouldn’t own a DS. Then when HGSS came out, I felt conflicted and realized I actually wanted a DS all along. I was just trying to cope with not having one by telling myself it was silly to own one, when in fact I knew I just couldn’t get one because money was tight. 

It was really hard going through that gen as a young adult because many older fans had lost interest. Pokemon was seen as a kids’ thing and nothing more. It was easy to form the same attitude, so it was around this time I had the least interest in Pokemon - at least spending-wise. It’s a time I really regret missing because so much cool merch came out during that time (particularly in Japan) including the Walky Pokemon promotion.

When XY and the 3DS were introduced, I finally had the finances to afford getting back into the games again, and I finally got to play Heart Gold for the first time. I went with Totodile as my starter that time around because although Cyndaquil was my first, I remember being quite fond of Ash’s Totodile. He was a real fun-loving dude, and to me, he seemed to represent the spirit of a Pokemon trainer’s childhood. It was the first time I played not for winning or getting (one particular Pokemon) stronger, but for personal enjoyment and feeling like I’m actually bonding with my Pokemon (and the Pokewalker device really helped to make it feel that way). 

That’s why it makes my day when I find out one of my kids love Pokemon. JHS students tend to ‘grow out of it’ because Pokemon is really aimed at ES kids. Sometimes they just don’t want to be teased for being too childish for liking something when they’re in that transitional stage of their lives when they’re growing up. That’s why I make sure each one of my kids knows how much I love Pokemon. I might not be very cool myself, but if an adult doesn’t think something is childish, then they won’t feel embarrassed about liking it. And honestly, I noticed many of my energetic students love Pokemon. There’s gotta be a pattern there!