How I got into Pokémon: In 4th grade, we had a "current events" day where we read some article on these Japanese kids watching a cartoon and having epileptic seizures. At the end of 5th grade, on the verge of the summer of '98, Nintendo Power had some vague mentions of this thing called Pokémon, which showed Pikachu, the three starters, and the Pokémon Pikachu. I started watching the anime that summer, and was only a tiny bit shocked when I found out that this was the show that caused those seizures. When 6th grade came, I was surprised to hear people talking about Pokémon and I instantly "came out" since I had a common interest with people. On Christmas day, I finally received Blue Version, and when I returned after Christmas break, for some reason everyone in my class bombarded me with questions about how to get past Lavender Town (what?), Silph Co., etc. Like I was some sort of Pokémon Master who had just received the game like two weeks earlier.
How I found Smogon: I remember I commented on a battle video on Youtube and saw someone sweep a whole team with a Breloom and thought "Hey, I didn't know Breloom was capable of that." I left a comment on the video saying something along the lines of "That's an amazing Breloom, how did you think of that strategy?" He PM'd me and invited me to Smogon. I wish I knew who it was -- I just dug through my Inbox and couldn't find anything. I wanted to PM said user and thank him, but I just can't put my finger on it.
Why I stayed: I read a few analyses and really liked them, so I've pretty much read most of them head to toe by now. I didn't join the forums until I started learning about RNG abuse, and my first comments were on Jibaku's Emerald RNG Abuse thread. Since then, I became more and more active with RNG abuse and hence have been a lot busier on the forums. The first thread I really put my heart into was Arseus' FireRed LeafGreen RNG Abuse Research. It was then where I discovered my penchant for RNG abuse, and I do much more of that than actual battling. My post rate is noticeably lower than most of my friends on here (who joined much later than I and have almost 3 times the amount of my posts at minimum), as I am pretty much still a lurker at heart. I still stick around to browse through trade threads and have recently had a fun time making my own. It's also cool to see people eager to learn RNG and I try to help with that as much as possible, even though it is slow at times.