Jul1

Introduction to me and my history with Pokémon.

I am a PhD student who studies genetics, with a focus on evolutionary and conservation genomics. I am also an advocate for animals (both wild and domestic) and the environment. During leisure time, I enjoy (among other activities) engaging with my favorite fictional stories, including Pokémon.

Pokémon has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started off collecting the trading cards, playing with the toys, watching the anime (including movies), and playing Pokémon Stadium 2. It is a franchise that me and my younger sister always enjoyed together growing up, and that continues to this day.

My first mainline Pokémon game was Ruby. I had so much fun catching, nicknaming, and training my very own team of Pokémon for the first time. I replayed Ruby and its upgraded version Emerald so many times that I lost track of the number. As each new generation and set of games were released, me and my sister would get the alternative versions of each (a tradition that started with Ruby/Sapphire), of which we decided together on who gets what. In addition to Ruby, the versions that I got and played were Fire Red, Diamond, Soul Silver, White, Black 2, X, Alpha Sapphire, Sun, Ultra Moon, Let's Go Eevee, Shield, Shining Pearl, and Scarlet. I highly enjoyed every single one of them, and I always look forward to the upcoming games.

Right now my favorite Pokémon game is Scarlet, with Shield being a very close second. I enjoyed both of these games so much that I also got and played Sword and Violet a few months after finishing Shield and Scarlet, respectively (though admittedly I've still yet to finish Violet - I've been busy with my IRL treasure hunt and my team is not built for battling fairy cars, XD). I just really loved the characters and their stories from these games, and they helped me cope with difficult life situations (Sword/Shield gave me something positive to focus on when I was grieving the death of my childhood dog, and Scarlet/Violet is helping me process the trauma of being bullied throughout my childhood).

In addition to the mainline games, I also play Pokémon GO and Pokémon Masters EX. Lately, I've been reading the manga for my favorite Pokémon games, and I have gotten back into collecting the trading cards after many years of hiatus. When I'm not engaging with official material, I enjoy creating fan-arts (including fan-comics) and fan-fictions of/about my favorite characters (which I post on AO3, DeviantArt [username currently RainforestWolf], and currently FFN).

I've been using Bulbapedia for information about Pokémon for years, but only now did I decide to join its forum. I look forward to discussing everything Pokémon with the other Pokémon fans on this forum.

Hasta la vistar!

DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own and should NOT be interpreted as the viewpoints of my university or lab.
Written by NucleoWolf