I first became aware of pokemon when I was 8 and my cousin had one of the first few versions. I ended up getting it for my birthday that year. I took a break after I got (and beat FireRed), but got back into it during the tail end of Platinum. My cousin got me into competitive battling and showed me Shoddy. While trying to find a pokemon (I think Arceus), someone refered me to a trading site, where I got my pokemon, and further developed my competitive battling. Stayed with it since, having waves of a lot of interest, and times where a few battles a week was alright. Been on two sites (regularly) before this one, so this will be my third pokemon forum.