When I was five years old, I would wake up early every Saturday morning to catch the latest adventures of Ash Ketchum and his trusty partner Pikachu. I was enamored by all the Pokémon and friends they met along their journey; and even when the episode was over, at the end of each morning bliss the text on screen would reassure me that “The Journey Continues”.
Until the show was rebooted.
This is normal for Pokémon as they have consistently rebooted the series every few years, refreshing the environment and cast surrounding the signature protagonists. However, as a little kid, I did not understand the concept of change and refused to watch any reiterations of the series. Every Saturday, I would mourn the supporting cast of characters I had grown to love, hoping to never experience that loss again.
What I did not understand at the time is that real life reboots are much more difficult than TV ones. And as I grew older, change never got easier.
Transitioning to high school is difficult for most. However, on top of the typical workload changes, I was also transitioning to a school with none of my middle school friends, as they ended up going to different high school.
On top of that, I was recovering from my emo phase. How was I supposed to make friends when I was still in the process of recolorifying my closet?
With time, I grew into my new life. Acquaintances I met in math class blossomed into close friendships; impulsive club joining, such as The Oracle and Advanced TV, turned into leadership positions and determined my college major.
For me, high school was a lot like Chutes and Ladders: sometimes you land on a ladder which sends you up and other times you land on a chute which knocks you down, but by the end of the game you will eventually end up at the top.
Even though I had a bumpy freshman year, with time I slowly developed a new chapter in my life by giving myself time to embrace the change.
Then, my senior year, I was once again rebooted. I got accepted to the University of Southern California, 2,022 miles away from the world I had grown to know.
This was an amazing opportunity. As an aspiring journalist and filmmaker, going into a school with renowned programs in both would be life changing. But the problem would not be deciding what to pack with me, but rather what I would be choosing to leave behind.
It felt like doomsday. Like the world I spent years designing was suddenly crumbling to ash. After cultivating my own corner of the school community for four years within The Oracle, the TV program, and the countless friends I made along the way, I would be erasing all the progress to begin a new series.
But, like Ash and Pikachu, it is time for another reset.
I will treasure this moment in my life, capsuled in the thousands of photos I have taken. However, with this next new beginning, I know I will gain fresh experiences that will allow me to rebuild my friendship circle and grow into new opportunities in the next four years. Another reset.
Eventually, from the ashes of my last adventure, I will gain a new fresh start as “The Journey Continues”.
