Have you ever had a dream…s that, that you uhm…

Justin L
Justin L
Jul 23, 2017 · 7 min read

Today was one of the best days of my life. I just caught Lugia, the great guardian of the sea, my favourite Pokemon and one of the first legendaries available to everyone on Pokemon GO.

Yes, I still play Pokemon GO and I’m damn proud. A lot of people wonder why I still play and the answer is much deeper than a one sentence answer.

In 1998 the first episode of Pokemon debuted on YTV in Canada. As fate would have it, Ash woke up late, missed the chance to get first pick for a starter Pokémon and instead got a Pikachu. This icon became the face of the franchise and eventually helped Ash defeat the indigo plateau and later on every elite four in every region.*

(* As a result, Pikachu should be the strongest ever, but he’s not, he’s a bitch. Ash should’ve taken Lt. Surge’s offer and accepted the thunderstone)

Pokemon Pilot Episode: I Choose You! Pikachu! (September 1998)

Similarly on that same day in 1998, the Pokemon franchise sold me a dream: to become a Pokemon trainer, the best, that no one ever was. However, it wasn’t possible yet, instead I had to settle with a TV show. As I continued to watch Pokemon episodes every Saturday, the more invested I was in Ash’s adventures. Then on Christmas Day 2000, I was finally able to start my very own.

Santa* gave me a turquoise game boy colour and my very first Pokemon game, silver version (*shoutouts to mom and dad). On the cover was the legend himself, Lugia. I remember playing that game so clearly; my first Pokemon I ever picked from Professor Elm was Chikorita. Then, my friend Johnny told me it sucked so I restarted the game and got a Cyndaquil.

I would play for hours filling up my pokedex until I finally established the perfect team that beat the game: Typhlosion, Ampharos, Tyrannitar, Scizor, Lanturn and of course Lugia, when I eventually caught him. Pokemon Silver is, in my opinion, the greatest Pokemon game ever and it was, for a long time, the only game boy game I played. Actually, it was the only game I had until I lied to one of the daycare supervisors that the Red version cartridge left in the cubby was mine.(*woops)

Pokemon Silver (2000)

Earlier that year, Pokemon 2000 was released in theatres and guess who was on the cover? Lugia. To this day, this is still one of my favourite movies of all time. I watch it annually and religiously.. I’m 22 and I’m still not sick of it. Those were the days, eh? When Pokemon played in actual movie theatres and you got a Rare, limited edition card that came with your ticket.* There movies solidified my love for Pokemon, the franchise and the dream of becoming a trainer. (*I got Zapdos for Pokemon 2000.)

From that point on I would stay on track with this ambition by collecting each new edition of the Pokemon gameboy games. Next I got Ruby, then Leaf Green, back a generation to Emerald and then Crystal — then I stopped. For a while I didn’t buy any games because technology evolved and the Gameboy Advance SP couldn’t play every game cartridge like it used to. The Nintendo DS was introduced and all new Pokemon editions were only available on that system.

Then in 2011 something amazing happened. Nintendo rereleased Silver version as Pokemon Soul Silver. Nintendo pulled a modern day Nike and adidas, they “retro’d” a popular line and hooked it up with modern technology. So of course logically, I bought a Nintendo DS second hand and then soul silver when I had more money. When I finally had it, it was as if I was reliving my childhood all over again. The nostalgia of the original Silver version with a modern twist and new side adventures, what more could you want.

This rekindled my passion for Pokemon. I mean it never really died but sometime between my teenage years where I was trying to be popular and cool, I lost touch with it. From that point on, I bought a version of each new Pokemon generation and if that meant I needed a new system, then I would make the investment. I am the proud owner of a Nintendo 3DS.

I buy into each generation so that I can continue to live my dream as a Pokemon trainer. This is the closest thing to reality of going on your very own Pokemon adventure. That is until 2014, Google Maps releases a “challenge” to the world to find the original 151 Pokemon on their maps. And although it was just a scroll and click game on your iPhone it got people excited. People were invested in it and spent hours trying to catch em’ all. It was fun, but it left me and many others confused, we all thought it would be a game where we can walk around in real life and catch Pokemon. Little did we know that the geniuses behind Niantic had that exact concept in the pipeline.

The Google Maps Pokemon Challenge was actually an April Fools Joke, that backfired in the best way possible.

In July 2016, Niantic launched Pokemon GO, the augmented reality game that took over the world. To some it was a game that was really fun for a few months. To me however, it was an absolute game changer. This is the closest I will ever be to becoming a real Pokemon trainer. That is why I still play, I’m constantly living my childhood dreams and those memories are some of my happiest.

Fast forward to today, July 23, 2017, 11:14 AM UTC, Kuromon Ichiba Market, Osaka, Japan. I’ve been living off public wifi for about 2 months now and only get to periodically open the app. Like Ash in 1998, fate would be in my favour. I opened the app and there was Lugia, the main Pokemon for that gym’s raid battle.

For those who don’t know, a raid battle allows multiple players to get together at a specific gym and battle a stronger version of a certain Pokemon, often a rarer type. Then as a team you battle the Pokemon and after it’s defeated you have the opportunity to catch the “raid boss.”

As I entered the raid battle I can see in the game that 20 others were committed to the same objective, catch the legendary Pokemon. It was an epic battle. After 15 mins of heartbreak, fear and excitement, the 20 of us took down Lugia.

Now it was my time to shine, Lugia was mine to catch and I only had 8 tries to make it happen. I’ve perfected my curveball catching technique, on average it has a 85% success rate. So, like any reasonable trainer would do, I turned my hat backwards and spun the pokeball with a little left curve. I would normally hit the inner circle but this time I was way off, but I still hit it.

When shit got real.

The pokeball closed and started to wiggle…once…twice… and then stars…I caught Lugia. Of the 20 or so that were there, I was the only one to catch it.

My trainer career had come full circle, from my first gameboy game, to Pokemon 2000, to the DS version and now Pokemon GO. The Pokemon that started my journey is now finally in my party.

The legend himself, Lugia

As I looked up from my screen, I had the biggest grin on my face, but for another reason. I saw that the whole street was lined up with people playing. And it wasn’t just young people, it was people of all ages and nationalities: grandpas, grandmas, families, teens, Japanese locals and tourists from China, the U.K. and Canada.

Everybody standing on the sides were playing Pokemon GO.

I missed that. Back when the app first came out that scene was so common to see. Hundreds of people would gather in one location for the same thing. During that time, everybody was friends. There was no animosity, there was no conflict, regardless of who you were and where you were from, we were all there to catch Pokemon.

I had that same feeling today. Despite being in a different country, surrounded by people from all over the world with different native tongues, we were all their together just like those first months.

Today was one of the happiest days of my lives. Not just because I caught Lugia, but because I can see in myself and in others that the dream of becoming a Pokemon trainer is still very much alive!

PS: if you didn’t understand the title:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7RgN9ijwE4

Justin L

Written by

Justin L

I write about stuff I like: soccer, ideas, osmosis…you know normal guy stuff.

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