DENTON, Texas — Local Pokémon fan Jared Trout learned a valuable lesson about diversity after a friend gave him some tips for Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.
“I didn’t get what was so important about diversity, but now I do. It’s all about type coverage!” exclaimed Trout, fresh off a victory in Fortree City. “All this time I thought a few solid Water types could carry me to the Final Four. My Mudkip, Horsea, Krabby combo seemed unstoppable. Then I got to Mauville City and that goddamn Electric gym. And because of that Electric gym, now I understand the value of having people from different experiences at your workplace. If you’re sitting around in a meeting and you look around and everybody’s a Water-type, uh-oh, you’re about to get shocked!”
Trout’s friend, Maxine Lechner, was the one who finally got him to understand.
“Look, is it embarrassing that it took a Pokémon analogy to finally get Jared to understand the importance of hearing from different perspectives? Yes. But I’m happy we got there in the end,” Lechner said. “No one wants to be the token friend in a group just like no one wants to be the Pokémon who has all the HMs. Sure, it’s not my job to be the one to tell him this shit, but I’m glad I got him to be more thoughtful about who’s represented where, and the importance of everyone having a seat at the table. Next up: convincing him to stop saying he prefers the original version of Jynx.”
Thanks to this lesson, Jared has a new outlook on life, and the Pokémon meta.
“It seems so obvious in retrospect. Clearly a single type isn’t gonna get you all the way to the Final Four,” Trout said, clearly still kinda working out the metaphor in his head. “Just like one perspective isn’t gonna get you very far in life. You need help from everyone. I’ve got lots of type coverage now. Fire, Poison, Dragon, you name it. Did you know some Pokémon are two different types? I wonder if people can be like that too. I need to do more research!.”
At time of reporting, Jared learned another valuable life lesson about embracing and accepting change as his beloved Mudkip evolved into Marshtomp.
