The Pikachu figurine stares at me,

It doesn’t have a proper place here,

I brought it to college for no reason,

Only that it reminds me of a simpler time,

One that wasn’t so complicated, once a long time ago,

Growing up so free without troubles,

Traversing around the country side at the age of ten,

It was fantastic, imagining I was somewhere else,

And with one look at the Pikachu I can remember

All of this and more,

The cards I collected, the comics I read,

The summers I wasted, the love I had for each and every pokemon

And yet, it all started with my father

The person who inspired me and supported my shameless nerdishness

The person who raised me up to enjoy the simple things in life

For him it was Star Trek

But for me it was Pokémon,

He raised me to love more than that though,

He raised me to love the world, and he taught himself the same

It started with loving the human race,

Doing charity work,

Helping the community,

And he’s still doing that now, on a bigger scale,

Now it is him who is organizing charity events,

Now it is him who is building homes for the homeless,

Giving food to the poor

I remember when he first started doing it,

He had always wanted to help out however he could

But it was a different side of him I had never seen before

Something about it was strange to me,

He’s not like me in the same way I’m like him,

But when he first bought me the Pikachu figurine

It was like a peace treaty saying “I’m still the same father you knew”

And I smile at it now because I know what he’s saying is true.