I sat in my grad school class one evening listening to the professor lecture on a given topic. She was a stern teacher. She had a certain tone that ignited a sense of fear in all of us. She was strict, authoritative, and terrifying. I dreaded going to her classroom every week.
And then one night, in the middle of a lecture she stopped what she was doing and made an obscure reference to Pokémon. The whole class was caught a little off guard. This seemed odd and out of character for her. She was after all, an old and frightening woman. She had no business knowing anything about Pokémon. I shook my head to myself and chalked it up to relatives of some sort. Maybe she had purchased something Pokémon related for a grandson. Yes, that must have been it.
But then she continued on her Pokémon themed digression.
“I liked Pokémon Red, and Yellow, but it frustrates me that they keep making different versions and I have to get them so that I can get all the Pokémon!”
Wait…what??? Was my heartless grad school professor really talking about Pokémon? Was she really talking about PLAYING Pokémon??? How was this even possible??
The class sat dumbfounded in complete shock. Our collective mouths hung open without exception. No one knew what to say. I thought for sure we were all hearing her incorrectly. Or maybe this was some kind of clever ploy. Yes, that must be it. She was punking us. This was some kind of test–the kind that only strange frightening teachers would do.
The teacher who was always so stern and cold clasped her hands together in delight and looked up towards the sky with a deep satisfying sigh.
“I really like Charizard. Charizard is my favorite.”
The student next to me started taking notes. Surely this would be on the final exam.