This is it. Today's the big day, though I'm not really feeling it just yet. Maybe once I step out the door for the last time it'll start to hit me. Things like this always seem to take a while for me to register, but I guess I should start out with what's going on so you've got some context for everything.

Today I'm leaving home for the first time. Not to stop by the store, or go on vacation, or anything like that. For the first time in my life I'm leaving home for a long while, and only God knows when I'll be back. I'm not saying it's a bad thing though. Normally I'd be really excited for this. It's every ten-year old's dream come true, to go out on their own and travel the land with nothing but the clothes on their back, a knapsack, and some Pokéballs. The thing is, I'm not a ten-year old.

I'm sixteen.

So how did I end up beginning my journey a whole six years after I got my trainer's license? It happened on that seemingly marvelous day so long ago, when my dreams got crushed by my mom's idea to have my little sister and I go on our journeys at the same time. "It would be so nice if you two could go together," she said, "You could look after her-"...or it went something like that. The argument started with her trying to convince me to wait and ended with my license in her fireproof safe.

And here we go. All my stuff is packed and all there is to do is wait for Janine to get her things together. "I thought I told you to help her pack her things, what have you been doing!?" yelled my mother. "Now you two are going to be late. For once, this last time I wish you would've listened to what I said."

"I forgot, I just had too much to do between cleaning the combusken coop and all the other crap you told me to do."

She sighed. "I've got some capsules here with food that should last you a week. Hopefully by then you'll realize how serious your situation is."

I stuffed the capsules, which look like grey Pokéballs, in my bag. "You should've planned this out a lot better. You had plenty of time."

Another fifteen minutes and Janine was finally ready; we said our goodbyes. It didn't feel like goodbye though. It felt like I'd already said it before, years ago...