To Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived

Alright. I know, I know...everyone has been doing these posts lately. I apologize in advance for how sappy, melodramatic, and depressing this might be...But I feel it is my obligation, nay, privilege, to spend just a few minutes talking about the Boy Who Lived, and how he has changed my life forever. Even just sitting here and thinking about writing this has tears brimming in my eyes and my thoughts are a mess. Just bear with me; this is  very tough for me to actually write about. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and yes, even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named have been so close to my heart for so long, I am having trouble accepting that this is the end. (crap now I'm really crying and I'm at work...the cube-mates are going to think I'm insane...)

Just like Harry, it all began when I was eleven. I liked reading, but wasn't really hooked yet. I read babysitter's club books but found them kind of boring and dull. Then my mom decided to try those odd looking books sitting on the display shelf in Barnes and Noble; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It actually took me another two months to start reading. At the time, I only liked reading about female main characters...something about boys still being icky or something...but then, my world began. Everyone knows what I'm talking about, from the first page, you are drawn into a world that is simply mind blowing. J.K.Rowling's writing is breath-taking. Even after all of the books I've read, the world she created in Harry Potter remains the most fantastic, realistic, and downright amazing piece of creativity I've ever read. (Oh my god why can't I stop crying!!) As an 11-year-old, I was blown away at how she wrote for an older audience even in a "children's book". I loved everything about the first book and read the second one immediately following it. I couldn't get enough. I remember being so distraught that the third book wasn't coming out for a whole year that I started crying and my mom took me to the book store to find something else to read. I would have none of it.

I had a rough time in middle school. My parents hit a rough patch so my home life wasn't the best. I went to a private school and was one of the only families that didn't have a lot of money. Instead of making friends with the snobby brattish kids that ruled the school, I made friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Instead of listening to fights that shook the walls of my room, I lost myself inside the walls of Hogwarts. Harry's world was the escape I needed to keep me a happy healthy kid in a time when I was struggling. I went to every midnight premiere since the third book, usually dressed in some form of Harry paraphernalia. I was going on a 19 hour trip to Disney World the night that The Goblet of Fire came out, and I basically threw a tantrum until my family would stop the car at the nearest bookstore at midnight. I lost count of how many times I have read the first 4 books. The third was probably the most loved, as I read it so many times I literally wore through the spine. It practically disintegrated in my hands on around my 200th reading or so.

There is really no words to describe growing up with these books unless you were there too. The constant question of "What's coming next?" hovered in my head. I always was in wonder, in amazement, that J.K Rowling could make each book as shockingly awesome as the last, if not better. I debated with friends for ages about mysteries in the books(Who's R.A.B?), worried about who would be killed in the next book (Sirius was one of the worst for me so I was almost too traumatized to start reading the 6th lol). When the first movie came out I literally cried with happiness. My world, my home, was coming to life on the screen before my eyes. (sure I had some complaints, but overall I was totally completely in love with the movies) You all know the feeling of community you'd get while waiting in line for the books or movies and you see people dressed up, people eating chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties, and dueling with wands...it is like all of these people love the same thing you do and it was just SO great.

The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows coincided with my high school graduation. Harry's world was coming to an end, and so was the world that I knew. I knew that the release of the seventh book was the real ending. There would be no more guess work, no more wondering if Harry and Ginny would get together, or if he would get with Hermione like I had kind of hoped for all along...No more anything. I cried like a baby when Fred died. I had to put the book down and locked myself in the bathroom and just sat in the shower and cried my heart out for about 20 minutes. I still can't get through the last half of the Deathly Hallows without crying half a dozen times. Even though I know what will happen in this movie, I am sure to be crying for a long, LONG time afterwards. My friends are literally bringing me a towel so that I can just sit and cry. This is it. There will be no more. Sure Pottermore is going to be live soon and you better believe I will be part of it, but it's not the same. I will read anything written about Harry, or by J.K. Rowling, but even that's not the same. So it is with great sadness that I see this movie, knowing that it is the last little unknown, the last little part of my childhood will be ending today. I owe so very much to Mr. Potter. At the very least, my love of reading and my appreciation for all things paranormal. So thanks Harry, J.K. Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe, and everyone else that made these books and movies so special. You have changed the face of a generation and I will always hold all of you so close to my heart.

~To Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived~