Becoming a Pokemon champion taught me how to face life's challenges
It’s been 15 years since my parents got me my first video game, Pokémon Platinum. I’m 22 now, and I’m as obsessed as I’ve ever been with the cute elemental creatures that I first met on a Nintendo DS screen in second grade.
Since then, the franchise has provided stability when my life has felt most chaotic.
Pokémon was created by Japanese game designer Satoshi Tajiri. The goal: catch Pokémon that live in various environments and assemble a team that battles other Pokémon and defeats evil organizations, and to complete various stages in one’s training by gaining experience points. The holy grail of Pokémon experience is Level 100, the game maximum.
By the time I got into Pokémon in 2008, the franchise was on its fourth generation of games.
I watched the Pokémon TV show. I pleaded with my parents to buy me posters and plushies. I even tried collecting the trading cards. (I gave up on those once I realized how complicated the rules were. To this day, I still cannot play them.)
Then my family moved.
In 2011, when I was in sixth grade, my parents relocated us to Karnataka, India. My brother, a 6-year-old, seemed unbothered. But I, at 11, was angry.
I had to start from scratch, make new friends, and form a new identity in a country where I’d never lived. Making matters worse, our new home was in the small city of Mysore, which had no video game store or McDonald’s then.
I found myself clinging to the one constant I could control: Pokémon.
The world of these cute virtual creatures, which I still traded with my friends back in California, became my safe haven. Playing Pókemon introduced me to a fan community online. I joined YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook groups where all we talked about was raising, training, and battling Pokémon.
But playing Pokémon didn’t just give me virtual community, it helped me bond with my real-life family. Because my younger brother also liked Pokémon, we were able to bridge our age gap.
Whenever I had a rough day, I knew I could come home and open my 3DS (I’d used my misery over our move to guilt-trip my parents into upgrading from the DS). Seeing my Pokémon team always made me feel invincible. I raised them! So what if I felt alienated from my peers and was struggling with my schoolwork? In this world, I was a champion.
My Pokémon collection grew. The arrival of an online Nintendo shop meant that I never missed an upgrade. I took comfort in knowing that I could put in any game cartridge (or start up any digital download) in my 3DS and travel to any Pokémon region I wanted: Alola in Sun/Moon (the game’s version of Hawai’i), Kalos in X/Y (France), or Unova in Black/White (New York).
By 2018, I’d graduated from high school and moved back to the States (to the toaster oven that is Arizona). Now, at age 22, Pokémon no longer feels like my lifeline, but it remains a huge part of my life. My go-to username is the one I coined at age 13; I refuse to change it. And I still catch up regularly with the games and follow the anime. My apartment is littered with figurines and plushies that I don’t have to ask my parents’ permission to buy.
Recently, feeling sentimental, I dusted off my trusty old Nintendo 3DS from my Mysore days. I put in my original Pokémon Platinum game cartridge from my San José days and found that I had saved the game right before facing the final champion character: Cynthia.
Cynthia was decked all in black and sported pixelated blonde hair. “Together, you and your Pokémon overcame all the challenges you faced, however difficult. It means that you’ve triumphed over any personal weaknesses, too. Let’s get on with why you’re here,” she said. “I, Cynthia, accept your challenge as the Pokémon League Champion! There won’t be any letup from me!”
I’d beaten Cynthia before, but I like running through different battles in the game so that my Pokémon can gain experience and reach that coveted Level 100. This time, when I finally defeated the last Pokémon in Cynthia’s team, the game lit up with futuristic strips of blue lights and white cubes.
“Remember,” a defeated Cynthia said. “Your Pokémon are partners that grew with you through many challenging battles. Together, you and your Pokémon can overcome any challenge that may come your way.”
Rithwik Kalale is a writer and journalist based in Phoenix, Arizona. He currently contributes content to TARO Magazine, an initiative that champions Asian American creative culture. You can follow him @rithwik_kalale.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Becoming a Pokemon champion taught me how to face life's challenges
