I had a fear of consequence and paranoia that something I did now might affect the future, which left me often very indecisive. Admittedly this was likely trauma that resulted from my parents being divorced at such a young age and my mother lying about it being one sided. Although later, she did admit that she was speaking out of hurt, and both of my parents agree that it was a mutual thing. I do have a healthy relationship with both parents, but damn the initial loss did fuck me up in some ways I've never gotten over.

...Wouldn't it make more sense to just catch a Spearow

I typically never catch evolved forms unless it's a situation where I legitimately didn't realize "X evolves into Y"

Admittedly it was the first gen, it didn't occour to me that Metapod was a cocoon for Caterpie until I heard about someone who had a Metapod that knew Tackle and Stringshot....

Still it is a mistake I sometimes make, recently caught a Floette in Violet, not realizing it evolves from Flabebe

Hmm, personally I don't know if I should save it for Mewthree or Pikablu