In life, one is faced with many choices, and when presented with these choices, one may be tempted to take the path that appears easiest. When making your choice, however, it is important to realize that taking the easy path now may lead to difficulties down the road. Likewise, options that may seem hard now may save you from greater difficulties down the road. For this reason, when playing Pokemon, when Professor Oak gives offers you your choice of starters, I believe in choosing Charmander.

In Pokemon, many new trainers are tempted to pick the Grass-type starter, Bulbasaur, a Pokemon that’s easy to train and gives you a huge advantage over Rock and Water-types, the first two gyms a trainer faces. The smart trainer, however, opts for the tougher choice of Charmander. As a Fire-type, Charmander is essentially useless against the first two gyms, whereas Bulbasaur can defeat them both single-handedly. Though this may make Bulbasaur seem an obvious choice for many trainers, what needs to be kept in mind are the challenges down the road. As the game progresses, trainers will face tougher and tougher battles, and will find their Bulbasaur, even as it evolves into Ivysaur and eventually Venasaur, becoming more and more of a liability. By the time the trainer reaches the end of the game, he has a Pokemon with relatively low power and weak moves without even a type advantage to compensate for it. In contrast, those who chose Charmander and suffered through the level grinding early on will have their hard work and patience rewarded in the form of the final evolution of Charmander, Charizard. With very high stats and a large move pool of powerful attacks, Charizard is a Pokemon that continues to be an effective member of any team throughout the entire game. In this case, selecting the harder path pays off in the long run.

When Professor Oak offers you your choice of starter Pokemon, the same principles are being applied that are factors in many of life’s decisions. Much like taking college classes in high school because it’s cheaper to take them now, or simply saving money for your future so you won’t have to stress over it in your later years, choosing Charmander is choosing to make a long term investment in which hard work now results in a large pay out later. This is an important lesson everyone should learn, a lesson that I learned the first time I picked up my GameBoy, put in my Red Version, and ventured out into the world of Pokemon. I believe it is always important to look at things in the long term, which is why I believe in choosing Charmander.

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