Everyone always draws fanart of themselves in the Pokemon world surrounded by their favorite pokemon or the ones they used in their game play-through. You see them hugging all these powerful pokemon like Blazikens, Lucarios, Charizards, Dragonites, heck even Legendaries sometimes. But the Pokemon anime shows that 98% of the population with Pokemon are pretty mediocre to below average trainers. If you grew up in the Pokemon world odds are you’d most likely have a Poochyena or something you’d hang out with at best.
Not saying I’m any better, I’d probably be that weird guy with 3 Rattatas.