The Beauty of “Pokemon Go”
By Marcos León
The first Pokemon game I ever played was Pokemon Ruby. I wasn’t really allowed to play video games much though, so I would always have to be sneaky about it. I ended up taking super long bathroom breaks to play, and eventually my mom got worried about my health. I told her I just had trouble going, no big deal. She took me to the doctor anyways. At that point I either had to come clean and lose my Pokemon, or commit. I committed.
I spent the next year taking stool softener, but abusing those bathroom breaks to keep playing Pokemon. See, as a kid I didn’t really have friends. My parents were strict, and we lived out in the middle of fields. When I started playing I finally found something to love. My Treecko was my best friend, and I wanted him to become as powerful as possible (I brought him with me to every new generation of games).
Pokemon wasn’t just a game, it was a world and creatures that I loved. I got bullied at school for reading too much, and when I felt lonely my team was always there with a new challenge to conquer.
I wasn’t really excited for Pokemon Go because I can’t bring my team with me. It’s a new style of game that brings Pokemon into the “real” world, but the adventure isn’t the one I look forward to. I really only downloaded it because my brother told me to.
On Sunday my mom was making tamales in the kitchen and my brother was playing next to me. He mentioned that a Mankey was in our kitchen and my mom yelled out, “There’s a Pokemon here!? Open mine up and catch it for me.”
My mom, who I hid my love of Pokemon from, was now more excited than my younger siblings to catch Pokemon. She was so happy when my brother explained the different parts of the game to her, and it reminded me of my love for this wonderful world.
The best part of Pokemon Go isn’t the game; the real greatness of it is that it’s bringing people together with characters that so many people love. The adventure might not be the same as what I’ve come to expect from Pokemon, but there’s a beauty in so many people going out together to find Pokemon. Once upon a time, this game would have been shunned as too nerdy, but it makes me happy to know that the younger nerdy kids have real friends as well as their team to love.
No matter the walk of life, it seems that everyone can connect over Pokemon. There really is a beauty in that shared love bringing people together and letting everyone enjoy the journey that we all wanted to take with Ash Ketchum when we were kids.
Pokemon Go isn’t really my kind of game, but I will happily play with my mom and go exploring to catch Pokemon.
Marcos León is able to see beauty in even the most polarizing things–unlike the rest of us at UF.