I was inspired by many people all over the internet sharing their beloved Harry Potter stories with the world, how the series changed them, and how it's helping them grow as people.
And since I am still suffering from PPD [Post-Potter Depression] following the eighth movie, most of my posts on this blog are going to be related to the series for awhile.
My Harry Potter story actually begins on year before I actually started to read the series. In fifth grade, when I became to have a strong love of books. My teacher at the time was a strong English lover, and I had a special bond with her because of what she made me realize in myself. She made me a reader. She made me a writer.
That's relevant because I hear many stories of how some people were never really into reading until they read the Harry Potter series. That wasn't the case for me, really. I loved reading from fifth grade. Still, I was raised in a family who considered reading to be beneath them. I was the first avid reader in my family in a generation, and I don't say that dramatically.
As I reached my first year of middle school and my sadness at the fact I was leaving what I presumed to be the best year of my life, I slowly drifted away from reading. I still had that love for it, but it seemed that I did much, much less of it. When sixth grade started I slowly eased back into my reading habit, always on the look out for new literary pieces to sink my teeth into.
I started reacquainting myself with a girl who I had known in my previous years of school. We drifted away in fourth grade and fifth, and reconnected upon learning we had similar classes in sixth grade. The more we got to talking the more we realized we shared a lot in common, including our love of reading.
One day -a day I would later come to call "the day that changed my life," all dramatics aside- near the end of sixth grade year, I found that that friend was reading one of the Harry Potter books -the third one, if I'm remembering correctly. I got to talking with her about how she liked the series, and she assured me it was the greatest series known to the world, and that I should consider reading it. Taking her advice, I went to the library that day in study hall and checked out the first book.
I owe so much to her, if I'm being honest. Because me checking out "Sorcerer's Stone" was the beginning of the thing in my life I owe so much to.
I remember starting to read the first book, and in all honesty, I really didn't like it! I actually stopped reading it for long periods of time, and then retrying. It was a cycle that continued until I got passed the first two chapters of the book. And once I got passed those first two chapters, I devoured the book, and was anxious for the second. I read every page with the air of a dog devouring its first meal in a month. And when my school's library didn't have the third book available, I practically begged my friend to borrow her copy.
The third book took me the least amount of time to finish -I just remember staying up late at night so I could keep reading and reading. From the start of the book I drew a very fond bond to Remus Lupin, who I would come to call my favorite character in later time. And I started to have an inkling of liking for Severus Snape, who was downright maniacal in the third book, such a deep hatred buried beneath his already dark, hateful exterior that I immediately gravitated towards. That third book became an instant favorite for me, having finished it in a day's time.
I read Goblet of Fire with equal haste as Prisoner of Azkaban, and Order of the Phoenix put a stopper on me, one of the hardest books for me to push through because of Harry's constant angst and shouting and overall, I just couldn't seem to connect with it. My dear, dear friend spoiled Sirius' death for me, a fact I quickly overlooked as I knew there would always be spoilers when so many people had already read the books and I was five-plus years behind schedule.
Half-Blood Prince I absolutely tore through, even though I knew I should savor the moment, what with having to wait for the seventh booka year from then. But I couldn't help it - before I knew it I had finished all six books, and a parasite known as Harry was now taking over my mind. I would reread the series many, many times before the release of Deathly Hallows in July 2007. And I remember my severe disappointment at not being allowed to attend its midnight release, nor was I allowed to preorder it [my parents were nucking futs, okay?]. I remember ignoring all references to the seventh book, anywhere I went, and waiting for my friend to finish her preordered copy so I could read it. Only to have -can you believe my luck!- her unable to lend out the book due to the fact other members of her family were anxious to read it as well....and lending a seven hundred paged, hard covered, finale-to-the-best-series-ever wasn't exactly a great idea. I don't think I would've even done it.
So I put my name on hold for it at the library, for the large print edition, which had fewer requests than the normal printed book. And when the library finally called us and said it was on hold for me, I couldn't wait to get to the library and read it. I read the first chapter in the car ride home, and spent the rest of the night so engrossed in it.
Honestly, reading the last book was such a blur to me, I was reading it so fast. And I relapsed into PPD when I read the last three words of the book. I remember rereading so many parts of it before I had to return it to the library, and even then I was sincerely saddened to see the book slide down the book drop off chute.
Eighth grade year, I spent the majority of my days completely obsessing over the series with my fellow HP loving friend. I reread the series multiple times in that year. It actually quite frightened my current language teacher when I walked into her classroom holding the fifth book, which we all know is a monster. She looked at me with this crazy look in her eyes as I sat down at my desk and cracked open the book to read it. And she eventually came up to me and asked seriously, "You're reading that monster of a book? For...enjoyment?"
I thought English teachers were to encourage reading, but obviously words of advice never get through. When I look back on that day, I'm absolutely positive she thought I was crazy for being the only thirteen year old to willingly read a book.
But I replied, without looking up, "Yep."
She wasn't the only teacher I would encounter Harry Potter with. My math teacher -of all the teachers!- noticed me reading the fifth book in her class, too. Unlike my English teacher, she was not appalled. In fact, we got into a huge discussion about the series! She was currently reading it for the first time, and was reading the fifth book. At the end of my eighth grade year, I actually became her kind of "pen pal," and we would write back and forth over the summer about the series, and I would console her when she admitted to her PPD after reading Deathly Hallows.
Yeah, I am a geek, for keeping correspondence with teachers. And my math teacher, of all people. But to this day she remains one of the adults in my life I have complete and total trust in. A trust I never would have had it not been for -what else?- Harry Potter.
What may be quite shocking is the fact that through all of this, I never gave a thought to the movies. I didn't watch Sorcerer's Stone until ninth grade, three years after I had started loving the series. And even then, I only watched the first four, and did not watch the fifth until after watching the sixth, which was released in 2009, if my knowledge is credable. My first experience at a movie theater alone with only one friend -can you guess which friend? ;)- was with the Half Blood Prince movie. I remember my friend had gone to the midnight premiere with one of her other friends, and we were talking about it on Yahoo messenger, and I brought up how I really wanted to go see it, and that she did too, again.
Seeing a Harry Potter film for the first time in a theater is a different experience from just watching the films in general. It's somehow more meaningful, to know you're such a fan that you'll even pay ten dollars to see the HP film. And that sixth movie remains to this day one of my favorite Harry Potter films in the franchise.
Throughout my first two years of high school, Harry Potter became a defining trait of who I was. Before I worried about being "that one nerd who loves reading." I thought of "nerds" as what they're painted in every media outlet in the world. But something changed when I grew older and realized....this was who I was. Harry Potter defined my life. Harry Potter made me who I am today. It still remains one of the first things I tell new people I meet, because I do believe that strongly that if you want to know me, you have to know my Harry Potter love.
The end of this amazing franchise means so much to me. It means unbearable sadness, because I don't think there will be anything in the world that has literally shaped me following this. Yes, I have parents, family, friends, etc etc. But Harry Potter has taught me so much over the years, and now that the last film is blowing down blockbuster walls all over the world....it's something I can't describe.
I've always said that the Harry Potter books have taught me more than the adults in my life. Which in a sense, isn't an overexaggeration. My parents have taught me how to care for myself, how to deal with things, and given me valuable lessons to carry me through my life. But there's things they didn't teach me, things they didn't tell me. My parents taught me how to live, but Harry Potter -and many books I've read- taught me why.
It's easiest to explain it in this way. Harry Potter taught me why I live. Why I should cherish everything I have. Why I should make the most of everything. Because, and this may be dark, it all can go away so fast. It taught me not to take things for granted. It taught me that a life without love is no life at all. It taught me that judgement is the worst form of belittlement, that trust is earned, not given...I have so many life lessons to thank J.K. Rowling for. Her writing added to the lessons my parents had taught me, but unlike them, she didn't just drill them into me, she gave me a reason why. And I'll never, ever be able to express my gratitude for that.
I frequently refer to my Harry Potter adorance as one of the most memorable lines in the Harry Potter series:
"After all this time?"
"Always."
I really, honestly, truly do not see my Harry Potter love dying. I see myself one day, as old as time itself, reading the third book, remembering...Some people in my life say I'll grow out of it. That one day, I'll stop reading them and move on. That that Harry Potter bug inside of me will eventually find its way out.
And to them I say one thing, the one thing I want to end this extremely long post with:
If there's anything Harry Potter taught me, it's the power of love.
And that sort of power cannot be washed out.
~Chelsea~
