Naryan Dahlstrom, 18, is among the thousands of Pokémon Go players traversing Snohomish County collecting pocket monsters with a smartphone.
So why pick him for this space?
Simple. He was the first person to respond to The Herald’s request to talk to a Pokémon Go trainer. And, who knows, he might even wind up in this newsroom someday.
When he’s not training Pokémon, Naryan is training to be a journalist. He will attend Western Washington University in the fall. Meantime, he lives with his parents, sister, grandmother, two noisy dogs — a cache of pocket monsters.
What do you like about Pokémon Go?
Essentially, it’s a surreal childhood dream come true. Perhaps what hooked me from the get-go was its overwhelming sense of participatory nostalgia. I stepped down my driveway to catch my first Pokémon to journey out into the world among others. I had planned to travel along my usual route, but soon found myself deep within the interpretative nature trail on the other side of town.
It’s a productive and wonderful instigator of fitness, if marked by the blister currently inhabiting my heel.
Where are your favorite spots?
The back trail behind Lake Tye is a nice walk and can keep your legs busy for quite a while. Another favorite is Main Street and Al Borlin Park downtown that stretches along the Skykomish River, so you get plenty of chances to sit quietly and enjoy nature.
Yesterday I was surprised to meet 11 people all actively playing the app along my route. We discussed interesting ways to catch Pokémon and strategies for the territorial gym feud that exists between the Valor (red), Mystic (blue) and Instinct (yellow) teams across the country. (I hear that Valor is in control of the White House as of current.)
Recently, I was trying to find a Rhyhorn around my school and ran into my friends, Johnny and Alex, in the parking lot playing Pokémon Go. We made arrangements to start a large group walk later that night, so after running some errands (five of us blasting the Pokémon theme song from the car while we cruised around town) we headed off towards Main Street. We encountered a good 40 to 50 people all engrossed with the same Pokéstops in our area. We ended that night at a Pokéstop with about 18 people, all of us part of different teams, catching Pokémon in one large circle.
Any concerns for people playing Pokémon Go?
I’m really worried about people using the app while driving, as playing it while walking is already distracting enough.
Any close calls while playing?
Definitely quite a bit of tripping has occurred over root-ridden sidewalks.
What Pokémon do you want to catch?
I’m really up for anything because I’ve just been enjoying the walks, but two really come to mind: Magikarp, for the evolutionary purposes, and a small dragon type called Dratini, because it’s always been a favorite of mine.
Any good names for your Pokémon?
Again, I’m a bit at the whim of the nostalgia trip for naming my Charmander “Cinders” after the first Charmander I had in my long-lost red version.
Who alive or in history would you like to meet?
English author Neil Gaiman, because he would probably leave to attend to his responsibilities just as quickly as he stumbled in, offer a humble quantity of wise words to live by and anxieties to hold onto, and then vanish in a particularly mysterious way I couldn’t ever quite hope to explain.
What’s your most proud moment?
It’s not much, but earlier in the year I wrote a couple of papers for school which gave me the courage to write more and pursue journalism.
What are you wearing?
A very unflattering gray T-shirt and black khakis.
What are three things in your fridge?
Ham, to cook with. Eggs, to cook with. And pizza, just in case the cooking goes horribly wrong.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Eighties hair metal. It’s all so bad, but when you need something ridiculous to cheer yourself up, you can rest easy knowing you’ll never be Whitesnake.
— Andrea Brown, Herald writer
The Chat is a weekly casual conversation with ordinary questions put to local extraordinary people. Do you know someone we should get to know better? Send suggestions to abrown@heraldnet.com or call 425-339-3443.
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