GOTTA COLLECT 'EM ALL
Collecting Pokémon cards again after a 20+ year hiatus.
It was 1999. I was 11 years old. I begged my mom for a Gameboy Color, because Pokémon had swept across our 6th grade class and I wanted to be a part of it. I woke up at 7:30 every morning to watch an episode before school, and would cry if I overslept and missed it. I had one Pokémon magazine that gave out tips and tricks which I read from cover to cover. It lived in my desk drawer, where all the important files went.
I also collected the cards but never played the trading card game. Instead, I’d watch the boys play it during lunch time. I kept all of my cards inside a mini Pikachu-themed chest of drawers. I’m pretty sure it’s still there, and I occasionally pester my sister to find it for me.
I don’t even remember which version of the game I played. I want to say red, and I believe I chose Bulbasaur. I beat the game, found Mew, and my Gameboy retired to my underwear drawer, where I kept all of my important but secret things. I wasn’t a gamer as a child, and unfortunately, the next time I thought about the Gameboy again was when our house was robbed, 3 years later. That kiwi-green Gameboy was the only thing the robbers stole from my room. I cried and cried, regretting all the memories we could have had, now that it was gone forever.
I moved onto Harry Potter as a teen, and it wasn’t until 2012, after relocating to Hong Kong, that Pokémon would resurface into my life. My friend Vince suggested that I buy a Nintendo DS so we could play Pokémon XY together. I got X, he got Y, and we would play on our lunch breaks during work.
My Nintendo DS, covered in stickers from Ooh La La, a brand from Korea. Back in my old Hong Kong apartment.
I never beat the game. I got pretty far into it, but then another friend just gave me his Xerneas and I gradually lost interest. The DS now lives inside of Ikea locker, where I put my all of my “lost” tech. Pokémon was back for a little while, like a friend popping in for a visit.
2017, Switzerland. I had just met Daniel. We were sitting on the couch one day when he asked, “Hey, do you want to watch this Pokémon movie?” It was Pokémon: The Power of Us (2018). It looked like a silly kids’ movie, but I figured, why the hell not?
Soon after, Detective Pikachu (2019) entered the theaters. We went together. The audience was filled with people around our age. It was so crowded that we ended up in the first row. But man, seeing a live-action world where Pokémon existed got me so… emotional.
Daniel bought Pokémon Sword so I bought a Switch with my Christmas bonus to play Shield. We watched the Sun Moon series and I was surprised that it made me feel just as giddy as when I watched Pokémon as a child. I fell back into the franchise, and even beat Sword Shield and Scarlet Violet. The Pokémon Horizon series is also really good (we still need to finish it), and I love the stop-motion Concierge series on Netflix.
Back to where it all began
Last year, I started to collect the cards again. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of cards from my origin era: 1999. These cards were bent and frayed, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to give them a proper home. I started buying one booster pack whenever I traveled, collecting them in various languages too. I usually buy 1 or 2 packs, because I don’t want to get too obsessed with this, as we know it can become expensive.
I posted some cards I opened last week on YouTube. The content was actually filmed last year around this time, but I felt it was appropriate since it features a Halloween-themed deck.
Click on the image to watch on YouTube ▶︎
I am thankful for everyone who brought Pokémon back into my life. I love that our generation of adults is so different from our parents. As a kid, I was afraid of growing older because I thought it meant that I had to give up on “childish” things. I always think about how child-me would feel, if they saw my life now—Pokémon? Still?! Little Peige would say that I’m living the dream.