geekycrap:

pokemonbw:

Someone told me that today is April 1st, 2011. Another told me it was April Fool’s Day. I am also sure that someone told me that today is Thursday … Yet there is one event I have not heard anyone mention. It is the one thing that brought most of us into the Pokémon franchise. 

Today is the 14th anniversary of the first Pokémon episode, Pokémon! I Choose You! This is the day that Ash Ketchum woke up late, the day that he arrived at Professor Oak’s lab only to discover that all of the Starter Pokémon had been previously chosen, and most importantly this is the day that Ash and Pikachu first met. 

I know the anime does not live up to everyone’s standards, but it has been apart of most of our childhoods and continues to be today. The anime was actually how I joined into the ‘Pokémon fever’ that seemingly plagued every nation at the time. I never knew of Red and Blue or Green or Yellow. There were only colors to me. If you asked me I could never tell you that Gold, Silver, and Crystal were Pokémon games. Heck, I probably had no clue what those things were! I only knew of you young Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum, his pal Pikachu, the hotheaded tomboy Misty, and their certainly eyeless, lovesick friend Brock. Over a span of 14 years Ash Ketchum has never become a Pokémon Master that he once set out to be, but do I mind? No, something inside of me never wants Ash Ketchum to become a Pokémon Master. It would mean that my childhood is over and his would be too. I know that I have grown up and I will continue to grow up, but the fact that Ash has not grown up with me makes me feel at ease. I can look at the anime whenever I want and feel like a child again. Whenever I see Ash Ketchum win a battle, I cringe. When he loses, I get a kick out it. Something inside of me does not want him to grow too powerful or too old. Maybe it is because Ash Ketchum represents my childhood or maybe it is that something inside of me that does not believe I have grown up. That I am still the child with two parents who seemingly love each other and a brother who I constantly fight with. A time in my life where I overlooked his medical problems and the fights my parents had. 

Or maybe it is time for Ash Ketchum to finally grow up so that I can go on with my teenage life and become an adult. Maybe that time will come, far from now, that I hear one of my children say that they will become a Pokémon Master and I can just smile a proud smile. I will remember how much in life I would have suffered without the magical creatures called Pokémon. Seeing my child enjoying the same thing that I had once had would make me feel complete … Maybe, just maybe.