Technology has always been seen as this great invention that allows us to connect more with society. Many people believed technology brings people together and makes the world more connected. I never truly believed this and in fact, I thought technology was separating people from one another. I believed in this until my freshman year in year in high school and how technology helped me make my first new friend. Before I went to Bishop Connolly High School, I went to a small private school in my hometown of Fairhaven. In my class I had about twenty other students and most of us have been together since the first grade. The difficult part of not having a lot of classmates is that it is hard to find people that share your common interest. My biggest interest at that time and still now is Pokémon games. Unfortunately, Pokémon wasn’t cool back in middle school so I never got to share it with anyone and so I kept it to myself.
At my high school I didn’t know one person, I left all my friends behind to start over. I was a shy student and kept to myself a lot. I never talked about Pokémon in high school because I thought it wouldn’t be popular. However, one day I was having a very difficult morning. My Portuguese teacher had yelled at me for not being able to properly introduce myself yet in Portuguese. I never had been able to grasp foreign language well and it clearly showed in that class. My teacher, Mr. Barbosa, said “If you aren’t going to apply yourself in my class then don’t waste my time and go to the library to do work.” I packed up my bag and left with my head down so no one could see my embarrassment. I had never been kicked out of a class before and I felt ashamed. I walked into a library that was filled with strangers each one more intimidating than the last. I sat down in a table next to this kid named Drew who appeared to be half asleep and listening to music. I didn’t know a lot about Drew except that he was in my grade and he played soccer but I still never talked to him. He was a Portuguese skinny kid but had a beard like an old man. He always talked fast and had a feint smell of fish on him since his family owned a fish market.
When I sat down he barely even looked at me and was still jamming out to his music. I sat there quietly trying to focus on doing Algebra homework but I couldn’t stop thinking about Portuguese class and how much of a failure I felt. The only thing that calms me down in times of trouble is playing Pokémon. I closed up my algebra book and opened up my laptop and went online to play Pokémon. I was playing for about five minutes when I could feel somebody breathing down my neck and looking over my shoulder. I turned around, hoping it wasn’t Mr. Barbosa, and it was Drew with eyes wide open and a big smile on his face. He said “Oh shit! You playing Pokemon? Do you have an Eevee? I need one!” He said it loud enough that it could be heard on the other side of the silent library. I was astonished what he just said and my jaw dropped a bit. I never heard anyone openly talk about Pokemon and with so much enthusiasm. I said to him “Yeah but not with me. Do you play a lot of Pokémon?” He immediately responded “Hell yeah! I just want an Eevee though and I can’t find one.” Drew than took out a Nintendo DS from his pocket and turned it on and was so enthusiastic about showing me all his Pokémon his game. We continued to talk that whole period and even into lunch about Pokemon. We talked about our favorite Pokemon and our favorite games and we even told stupid jokes.
Before I knew it, Drew introduced me to other classmates that liked Pokemon. He introduced me to Mosely, Evan and Mitchell. Most of these kids I had classes with and they were as shy as me. Drew had us all sit together at a lunch table and we all talked about Pokemon. I guess you could say that we were a nerd table but nobody even cared. Our other classmates didn’t even care and I realized that high school was completely different from middle school. In each of my freshman classes I had at least one of these fellow Pokémon trainers with me and we always sat next to each other. In the next four years we all became very close friends. There were days in which we would all be playing online while in class. Pokemon help me meet my four best friends and it’s thanks to Pokemon that high school was an amazing time for me.
Technology, in my case it was Pokemon, forms a bond with people you never would have assumed in the first place. It truly brings people together and creates a community that wasn’t originally there. It is thanks to technology that my friends and I are still close and still play Pokemon to this day with each other. It helped me realize to always be myself and never be ashamed for liking certain things. When you be yourself, others will like you more and you’ll like yourself more too. Pokemon has taught me many things but none more importantly than always be true to yourself.
