Have a reason to believe everything you believe.

I had a dream and it was simple. It was to become the best. The Pokemon Champion.

One day I met her and everything became more complicated.

I was a teenage guy from Kanto.

She was a teenage girl from Unova.

The way we met was a coincidence. We had met on a metro in Jotoh, though we were both there for completely different reasons.

And, as we talked, I learned that that difference wasn't the only difference we had.

My starter was Fire. My favorite type was the same.

Her starter was Water while her type was, once again, the exact same. (A fact that somehow didn't make me better than her. Still trying to figure that one out.)

We both had different ideologies on raising Pokemon. I believed in keeping them out of their Poke Balls and giving them freedom to do what they wanted.

She believed in watching over them, carefully guiding how they grew to control their potential.

I believed in traveling fast and often, learning with the pressure of knowing your next battle was right around the corner.

She believed in staying in one place, taking her time and learning things that I couldn't comprehend about a city's own unique "style" of battle.

Ideologies weren't the only thing that was different, though.

My childhood was rough. My parents divorced and my mom had never enjoyed the idea of me leaving to go off on a "petty adventure with those...things."

She grew up pampered, a high class family with loving parents and care beyond what I could imagine.

I was angry at her for the way she treated her Pokemon, though there was nothing wrong with it.

I was angry at her for wasting what I saw as precious time, though I knew in my heart that I was rushing through life.

I was angry at her for leaving her life behind, her blessed life, for a Pokemon journey, though I did the same.

Despite everything, though, I talked to her.

I knew I shouldn't have had a problem with anything she did, because she could justify everything she did.

But I had a problem with it. I hated it because it was different and therefore wrong.

But then, why did I keep on talking to her?

Because of the first sentence she'd ever said to me, delivered in a cheery tone opposite of my own mellow attitude.

"Hey! You're taking to the future Pokemon Champion! Are you ready for a battle?"

We shared something.

We shared a passion for battling.

We shared a bond of friendship only Trainers could have.

Best of all, we shared a dream.

We shared a goal.

We shared a belief.

We believed that we could be good enough to reach the top.

Even though we were different, we were aiming for the same thing.

Let's both strive to become better, not by point out each other's differences, but by working together to achieve our goal.

"Are you ready?" I finally said, entering the room after the hour long break. "This is going to be our one-hundred and third practice. I hope you're ready for me to break this tie!"

As I shouted and sent out my Poke Ball, I smiled.

We're different, yet we were the same.

And maybe, in the end, I could learn something from her.

Take it how you want to. I love you guys.