When I was still a young pup, I had always described the city I lived in with just a few simple words.

Darkness.

Souls who were caught by the routine that is also referred to as everyday life- they feel nothing. So many beings I come across who pay little or no attention to those around them; the ones who focus on getting the job done- and nothing short of it. Nobody laughs, nobody smiles, nobody loves. It makes me sick… and how we could have fallen into this cycle of colorless living is beyond even my understanding.

Hatred.

We have a tendency to either ignore or bite down onto what we cannot accept, and maybe that is because we don't truly understand each other yet. It isn't simply emotions like anger or fear that cause us to be so despicable; but instead it's how we use those emotions among ourselves and others. But instead of using these emotions to enjoy life, It just so happens that we are yet again consumed by our immaturity. So we release our irritation without thinking twice, and nobody thinks about what simple irritation could grow into. Hate, Jealousy, rage.

Selfishness.

Time and time again, we ignore the events in our history and continue to repeat the same damn mistakes that placed us in darkness to begin with. We replace courtesy and good deeds with greed and sick humor. We take, take, take- but I never see any giving. I see people lying, cheating, killing, and only to gain. But what do they gain in the form of their mentality? Nothing. I myself even admit to being selfish at times, and I get rotten feelings about that now and then. It just seems to be a natural trait among us.

Then, there was a completely different word I began to use; a surprising word that cannot be expected to compare in any way with the others; all because of something that changed within my heart.

Hope. To love again.

Not too long ago, I came across a Scraggy by the name of Zippy. It was a rainy day, quite gloomy and I just happened to be sitting on a bench outside a coffee shop. It seemed like out of nowhere, this pokemon came up to me and just...stirred up a conversation. Sure, I wasn't thinking much about it at the time, but the reality of the situation was that I had actually began genuinely conversing with someone for the first time in ages. I had forgotten the joys of communication.

Though as I started to stare into those understanding eyes of his, the idea finally smacked into me. At the shock of the realization, I didn't know what to think. In a world like this, I was taught to always be careful; to never look back if just in case it happened to be our biggest fear who came from the darkness to strike us down and rob us of our well being. But this oddball wasn't scary, and he was anything but disrespectful. We talked the entire evening, and eventually came to understand one another. As soon as "Friend" slipped from my lips, it became much more than just a word. We became friends.

That was only the first day. Before we said our goodbyes, Zippy offered to meet up in the same spot tomorrow, to talk a bit more with me. And why did I say yes? Well, this peculiar pokemon had many things to speak of, so many interests and stories. The way he spoke, the manners he had presented- it was clear to me that he meant everything. He wanted to be here, he wanted to talk to me. All of his emotions varied, and they sure as hell weren't fake. Topics that my tongue never dreamed of collaborating with; it took almost no effort at all to hook me on.

So that was that. The next day, he offered to show me something special. Something that was going to eventually change me as a being. So, of course- I agreed to follow to wherever he would take me. Why wouldn't I? He so easily revived the version of myself that I didn't even know existed any longer; I trusted him. I remembered that trusting another pokemon wasn't a weakness or a weight on my shoulders, but instead it was a door that I could choose whether I would open or close.

It's hard to think even up to this day that I began to believe in myself as a pokemon again from a simple stranger, and that I could believe in another just as easily if all I did was be patient. Zippy once told me; "If you're unwilling to open up to others, how can you expect them to open up to you?"

So this dark, dreary place? It was no longer the main burden on my mind. Maybe it took a while for me to grow out of my own problems, but…

I like to think that moment in time is where my life truly had begun.~