Squirtle. Bulbasaur. Chamander. As a kid you either knew which one you were going to choose straight from the start or this was the hardest decision of your young life. Like many other people of my generation, I grew up with them and still play with them to this day. Although the games can be confusing at times, with certain flying Pokemon not being able to learn fly **cough cough Gyrados cough cough** I was always excited to continue the adventure into new uncharted lands.

Perseverance. A lot of times it was necessary to train your Pokemon out in the wild so they would be strong enough to take on gym leaders, your rival, and other powerful trainers (Team Rocket not included). This is especially applicable to us college kids when we're writing that research paper at three or four in the morning. We never gave up hope when we were training our pokemon so why should you give up hope now? You shouldn't.

Bad guys like to use bad Pokemon. Especially early on in the game it seemed like Team Rocket grunt had a Zubat, which was really counter-productive because your Pikachu (or other electric type) could easily make it faint. With the possible exception of Giovanni (the leader of Team Rocket for you pokemon virgins out there), Team Rocket really needs to get their act together. Poison isn't the best type by far, and they should branch out more.

Some Pokemon (like people) are just really annoying. People like Zubat and Woobat always want to be in your business and just get in your way. The abras are those that take to play hide and seek on a daily basis and the only problem is they're really hard to find. The Koffings are those egocentric people that just spew nonsense day in and day out. Then there are those really versatile people (the Eevees) and those friends that drive you everywhere no matter what time it is (the Pidgeots).

Pokemon also introduced a basic level of logic and/or strategy to its young fans = water beats fire, fire beats grass, flying beats bug, electric beats flying, and the list goes on and on. The whole “fight fire with fire” thing doesn't work too well when you're trying to take down a Charizard with your Slugma. This is why you had a Vaporeon, Wartortle, or even better yet a Magikarp!

Having and developing friendship with your Pokemon brings you closer to them and makes both you and them stronger. When your Blastoise is facing your opponent's Venusaur, he doesn't have to struggle through the battle by himself. It's ok for your Arcanine (or other fire type, Arcanine is a personal favorite) to go lend him a helping hand and let him rest for a while. This is the same situation in real life. It's very rewarding to make, develop, and maintain friendships with a lot of different people and not just one type. If you make friends with only fire type people the you're going to be pretty weak to water, rock, and ground! However if you had a grass type friend along with your fire type friend you'd have the advantage. We all have our strengths and weaknesses but hopefully we've made a good group of friends to help get us through the cerulean cave.