My experiences with Pokémon take me way back to 1998, the year the series landed in North America after a successful run in Japan. That same year, Hurricane Georges hit Puerto Rico in one of the worst disasters the island has ever experienced. Because it was so bad, we had no electricity for nearly two months! This meant I had to rely on one of the older forms of entertainment ever: reading.

Not only was I reading my books, I had a ton of Nintendo Power magazines lying around for me to read. Who cares if they were old and outdated, they were still fun to read! The newer issues came with mini-Pokémon magazines, which included basic tips for Pokémon Red and Blue and a small comic featuring screenshots of the Pokémon anime. At first, I was kind of "meh" on the whole thing and pretty much ignored it till the end of 1998.

The spring of 1999 was when I first REALLY noticed Pokémon. I saw an episode of the Pokémon anime starring Bulbasaur, one of the starters in the game. I loved that episode so much that I decided to invest my time and money on the games. Hundreds of hours laters, I was very much hooked on Pokémon. Even though I was on my way to being a high school senior, I didn't care that I was playing a "children's game". I even made friends thanks to Pokémon. Every day, I would meet up with a friend and discuss the Pokémon anime or the games themselves. It was our way of winding down after a day of schoolwork.

I was really into the whole franchise, buying games like Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Pinball and religiously taping the Pokémon anime weekday mornings and weekend mornings. It was the first thing I did in the morning and the last thing before going to bed. But I didn't really notice how popular Pokémon would be until the fall of 1999. That's when the first movie came out in theaters, and anything Pokémon was the most requested holiday gift of the year. That's when my fandom grew even bigger because it felt like I was taking part of something really special and a defining moment of the decade.

Puerto Rico was not so far behind in the phenomenon, with many news shows dedicating segments to Pokémon, both positive and negative. There was even a motion to ban Pokémon because it was "inspired by the devil"! You can guess the kind of reaction this got from Pokémon fans. Even a comedy show dedicated a whole episode on Pokémon, something that was surreal for me to see.

One memory I fondly remember was attending the lighting of the town's Christmas display in 1999. It was a Friday, and on the display there were several cartoon characters adorning a section. One of these characters was Pikachu! It brought a smile to my face. Once it was over, I went to Burger King for a late dinner. At the time, Burger King was running the massive Pokémon promotion in honor of the first movie coming out, which included a lot of Pokémon toys. I ordered a Burger King Kids Meal (no regrets) and in my Pokéball was a talking Pikachu! The kids were envious of me that evening. In my mind, I should have traded the Pikachu for one of the lesser toys and made a kid happy, but the Pokémaniac in me was greedy and kept the toy.

I think the reason Pokémon has endured for so long is because it was more than just a game. The way it became a worldwide success made it something special. It made you feel like you were part of a massive community that had many stories to share. My experiences with the franchise from the late '90s can attest to this fact. I didn't care that I was becoming a young adult on my way to the rest of my life, I didn't care that people thought I was weird for liking Pokémon, I was having too much fun with these cute little monsters to even bother.

There have been many Pokémon game releases, the Pokémon anime is still airing around the world, and many Pokémon stories and conspiracy horror stories have been spread like wildfire. But none of that will compare to the excitement of being there when Pokémon was just a new, quirky idea being pushed by a massive marketing campaign, and see it evolve (pun intended) the iconic franchise we know and love today.