Pokemon Making a Strong Comeback With the Younger Generation

If you were to ask me when I was in my early teens if if I thought that the world of Pokemon would be around for as long as it has been, I'd tell you absolutely not.

Yes, it was all the rage, but to me at the time, it was nothing more than a fad that would die out as quickly as pogs. I couldn't have been any more wrong and I'm witnessing it firsthand today with my godson.

His name is Emmitt and he's obsessed with the Japanese trading card game. I can't even call him to just say hello without him asking me about something Pokemon. Luckily for him, I was able to find my old collection from 1998, the "OG" Pokemon, as I call them. At the time, there were only 151 Pokemon characters, and most of us who collected the cards were familiar with every single one. Nowadays, there are just shy of 1,000 mythical characters and I couldn't recognize a single one outside of the names "Pikachu" or "Charizard."

It's understandable that with the popularity of Pokemon Go, that the legacy of Pokemon would live on strongly, but Pokemon Go is a fitting game in a modernized world, whereas in my opinion, collecting and trading cards seems a bit archaic.

"When are you getting me more cards, Uncle G?" Emmitt constantly asks, and to be quite honest, other than Amazon, I'm not even sure where to find a place that is selling these cards the I once took pleasure collecting.

It is, in a sense, relieving to know that it's prying my godson's eyes away from the harmful screens of electronics. These days, children are glued to their tablets and video games, more so than when I was a child (Nintendo 64, of course). Within the last week alone, I've come across at least three different Facebook groups that are dedicated to the hobby itself, and as nostalgic as it appears, I just can't seem to get back on board. Not with my schedule. at least.

Hey, at least it's keeping my godson occupied and distracted from the evils of the world. I see a "young me" in him and I can't help but smile as he offers to have me join him in battle among the fields of Pokemon whose names I can't even pronounce.

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