I've heard people say handling pokemon, training them is a piece of cake. It's worthwhile to note tough, that these are the people who have never actually been out on a journey. Those who have, tend to be a little more, err, pessimistic. I used to belong to the first group. That is, until is started training for myself.
I started training a bit late. Thirteen years old when I got my first Pokémon I was. I had wanted to go out on a journey since I was eleven. Not because I was particularly fascinated by the thought of travelling throughout the whole country. I wanted to because every other prospect seemed pretty damn boring. Well, actually there was actually only one other prospect: Continuing my education.
Honestly, my parents were kind of surprised when I expressed my desire to leave. I guess my laziness could account for their skepticism. I was a slakoth, a slowpoke and a snorlax all rolled into one. They asked to wait a bit before plunging into the uncertainty that was training. And that 'little bit' eventually transformed into two years. On my thirteenth birthday, I finally got gifted my first pokemon. It was a budew. My parents told me it was a male one. I named it Uno. Lame as that maybe, I wasn't going to spend an hour coming up with a cool and appropriate nickname. I had expected one of the regular starters everybody got. But I wasn't too gutted about it. Hey, got to be unique, eh?
I left home the next day, because after all, I had been preparing for two years now. I was ready enough. And I was naïve enough.
It was all well at the first. Being a Pokémon trainer seemed easy. That was until I reached Jubilife city. I didn't even have to enter it to find trouble. Just before, a trainer, some guy named Arnold, challenged me. Uno and I had won three battles to come this far. Uno had defeated a shrinx, a kricketot, a rattat and a bidoof. It had taken three potions and a trip to the pokemon centre. But, still. We were doing okay. Hell with okay, I was already dreaming of being the champion. So I went into this battle fairly confident. Uno was confident too. But that, I suspect, was just his nature. He seemed kind of, err, smug all the time. Even before achieving anything really.
But this guy gave both us a lesson. He had a starley that KO'd Uno.
In one hit.
One.
I ended up giving him half of my money, and much more. I was totally lost after that. I knew this kind of thing happened to all new trainers. It had too. I couldn't be the only one. But that didn't make it any easier to take. I didn't enter Jubilife, but stayed back and trained. Uno had lost his usually confidence too. I felt like I had let him down. Maybe getting more levels would help with getting his confidence, I reasoned with myself. Deep down, I was just scared. If I couldn't handle a starley, how would I handle Jublife. Jubilife: so full of trainers, so much better than myself. I camped in that same route for three nights and battled every wild Pokémon there till I could find no more. Eventually I knew I would have to leave. I promised myself I would leave the next morning. And I convinced myself everything would be okay. And everything went wrong.