A Longing to Be Spoiled Rotten

Looking back on my childhood years at 2820 Chapman Way, there is one thing of which I can be certain: My sister and I had a knack for persuasion.

While most of the early 90s blur into Super Smash Bro'ing, trampoline bounding, sunny days, for some reason, the ploys of persuasion cooked up by Allison and I remain vivid in my memory.

Before my baby sister was even capable of consuming solid foods, let alone developing and executing a successful siege strategy on the minds, hearts, and pocketbooks of my parents, I planted a tiny seed of persuasion in her little baby head. It was a typical day in suburbia and the sister and I were laying on the "oh-so-90s" linoleum kitchen floor. It was too Georgia-hot to play outside so I offered that we play with my new Pokemon cards while absorbing what little coolness we could from that sticky, kitchen surface.

During this time, I was on a huge Pokemon binge. (cards, gameboy games, tv shows, THE WORKS) Later on, I would even attempt to convince my father to buy me a special edition Charizard for 40 dollars. Obviously, a petition to spend 40 dollars on a piece of cardboard was squashed instantly by Tom. (I'm good, but not THAT good.)

Anyways, I didn't even really know the rules of Pokemon card battling so I thought to myself..Bingo! I can make the rules up as I go along. #winning. Sooo, I came up with some crazy, I'm-not-even-following my-own-rules system and in the end convinced my sister that 1. my Pikachu had rocked her Squirtle's shit, 2. that she had lost at a legitimate Pokemon battle, and 3. that I was the champion of Pokemoning.

You could tell by the expression on my little sister's face that she was peeved about losing a game of trickery where rules could form anytime, about anything. But it was more than that. Something in the way her youthful brow wrinkled in astonishment said, "I want in on how to be tricky", " "I want the formula to #winning"

From that day forward, I took her under my wing as my apprentice in persuasion, my cohort in charisma. And together we waged war against the "we don't want to spoil you" psyches of our parents. Don't spoil us?? We were determined to be spoiled rotten, it was just a matter of PERSUASION.