The Pokemon Community can be an Emotional Roller Coaster.

I’ve been a part of the online Pokemon Community for over six years now. It’s basically become my life and identity. I have a room in my house full of Pokemon Plush, Pokemon Cards & Slabs, Collectibles that most people would dream of having! My “Pinky Room” has been called a “Dream Room” or people will comment things like “GOALS” when I show it in my content. Over a million dollars of STUFF I love… but what happens to that room when someone or something in the Pokémon Community upsets me? Nothing. It just sits there. I won’t go inside.

I’ve added other things to my Pinky Room to help solve that problem. One example would be taking down a giant framed Pokemon Card and replacing it with a giant pink unicorn head that sticks out of the wall… looks similar to a dead deer trophy head in a hunter’s house but it’s a pink unicorn statue. It helps when I’m down I guess. But the point is that is sucks to not want to be around the things you love because someone or something hurt you.

Being a prominent figure on social media isn’t for the weak. But it’s POKÉMON! You would think people are a bit nicer since everyone is basically a nerd. FALSE. Being in the public eye in any niche is going to attract all kinds of attention; both positive and negative.

That’s the main reason I’ve centered my platform around kindness, inclusion, positivity, and anti bullying. Which really means I have an even bigger target on my back and in my heart.

I go out of my way to do kind things for people and host activities that include anyone who wants to join. I send countless packages of fun things to people. None of that stuff is ever given expecting something in return. My goal is to lead by example. But it gets hard.

I don’t expect gifts in return and I don’t expect people to ignore any wrongdoings I might make. But when you’ve been giving and building people up for so long it can be a huge shock when one of those people does something to hurt you.

I’m not perfect and I have made mistakes. I’ve judged other creators for several things. I’ve gossiped. I’m human. But I’ve never sought someone out to harm just for the hell of it. Promoting kindness doesn’t make you blind but it keeps you from making public dramatic scenes and calling out people who do weird stuff.

Recently one of my good friends who happens to be a Drama Creator in the Pokemon Community publicly blasted me in a negative way. I made a story post about those “support your ten favorite accounts lists” saying that I support everyone and everyone deserves love. I mentioned how those lists ultimately hurt a lot of people’s feelings because you can only name so many people; you’re bound to leave someone out that feels close to you. I also mentioned that it’s okay to unfollow people that make you upset. By that I meant it’s okay to unfollow someone who you’ve been let down by time and time again. Someone who doesn’t acknowledge your kindness. If they don’t care about you and you’ve notice that; stop supporting them. You don’t have to support anyone you don’t want to. If someone continues to leave you out and make you sad then stop watching them! Stop trying to be in their circle if they make you feel bad. It doesn’t mean they are necessarily a bad person, but if you’re beating yourself up over someone then either talk to them about it or just say bye. It’s like when the cool girls in middle school are nice to you at school but then don’t invite you to their slumber parties. It hurts! So as hard as that might be.. let them go, focus on the people who are nice to you, and have your own slumber party.

The Drama Creator I was speaking of jumped on what I said and took it in a different direction. He said he was defending the people who make the lists, and I’ll admit I wasn’t thinking about their feelings. I was only trying to give strength to those who felt left out from the lists. But instead of saying he was defending people making the lists, he said I shouldn’t be on the list to a certain Pokémon Event. So I had no clue what he was talking about and I was not only confused but severely hurt by him.

We discussed this for over 24 hours before he said what he was actually implying by blasting me. There was no need for that. It would have been a completely different situation if he simply said “you’re being an asshole to all the people who listed their friends.” I would have understood what he meant and I would have actually thought about how I was being an asshole to the people who made lists of their real friends. Instead I was crying over him saying I shouldn’t be featured at a certain Pokemon Event. He was one of the main people I wanted to meet at that Pokemon Event. It was like a knife to the heart. Being publicly shamed by someone who is not only a friend but someone you’ve looked up to! It hurts.

The point of this isn’t to shame that Drama Creator for hurting me but it’s about being direct and transparent with your intent. He didn’t have to publicly shame me. He could have sent me a message telling me I sound like an asshole.

What hurt the most was the shock of it all. Not even two months prior to this experience he came to me asking for a loan. His wife (one of my best friends) has been ill and despite him having a good job he needed money to help get them to a better hospital out of state. He paid me back right when he said he would and even sent extra money to treat my husband and I to dinner.

The moral of this story is that you can be the nicest, caring, and most generous person to anyone but that doesn’t mean you’ve won their loyalty. It doesn’t mean they won’t hurt you or publicly humiliate you on social media.

Be careful in the Pokémon Community and any community. Don’t expect kindness in return from everyone. Give with the knowledge that you are a genuine person and don’t forget the good things you’ve done. Those things are not forgotten by all and you can carry on knowing you helped someone feel better even if it was just for a moment. Sure it hurts sometimes, but other times it’s great. Just don’t give too much of yourself to anyone. Treat yourself with kindness too. It’s so hard to not get upset by friends or strangers on social media so take everything with a grain of salt. You don’t want to end up hating something you love due to a few bad experiences.

xoxo- Pinky Pogo