It all ends here.

It's been a long long road for me. Since 2001, when I saw a Harry Potter movie for the first time, all the way until tomorrow, when I'll attend my last Harry Potter movie premiere. Warning: I'm about to blab on about my pathetic life, for awhile, so feel free NOT to read, if that bores you. The last paragraph is really the kicker, anyway!

My first experience with Harry Potter was with the very first movie. I don't really remember whether I saw it in the theaters, since I was so young, but it is really likely that I did. My first memory having to deal with the movie though, was when my aunt came into town just after it came out on VHS. She was shopping with my brother and I at the mall, and she was going to buy her son the movie, so she bought a copy for my brother aswell. I later fought with him over whether the movie was his, or whether it was the family's. His main argument was that I had never read one of the books, so I couldn't have the movie.

Being the youngest, I really wanted to be just like my siblings, so when my brother made me sound like a child, because I had not read the books, it really made me want to be "a big kid".  So, in 2002, when I was in third grade, I picked up my first Harry Potter book...and it was in Spanish (Harry Potter y el Prisionero de Azkaban). Needless to say, my Spanish skills weren't quite at 300 page long chapter books, and I gave up reading a few chapters in.

Then, in 4th grade, in 2003, we had to do reading logs, and I found an English copy of the 1st book at the school library. I read it, and really enjoyed it. So I started to read the others. All throughout the year, my reading log was always filled with Harry Potter books. Being the slow 4th grade reader I was, I would bring the book to school with me every day, and when the book was due back, I would renew it. I quickly became the "Harry Potter girl", as I carried Goblet of Fire in my backpack, back and forth to school every day. It took a while to finish, but once I did, I was hooked. At the end of that school year, the fifth book came out, and I slowly made my way through that one. I also went to my first midnight premiere for the third movie this year.

I can  distinctly remember a day where I was walking home from the school bus and I had this sudden realization that the world of Harry Potter could never be real. It wasn't like I had some delusion that magic like that existed, or that I could go to Hogwarts. I just wanted to live a magical life SOOOO badly, that I started crying. And it wasn't the only time the series made me emotional. I remember reading the fifth book, and throwing it down and giving up reading it for 2 months, because I was so upset that Sirius had died. And I'm not going to even pretend I didn't tear up while reading the last book. That would just be silly.

Middle school really cemented me as a super fan. Just as the books started to come to a close, and the hype got higher, I wasn't enjoying my life too much. So I threw myself into the world of Harry Potter. I discovered online websites, like Mugglenet during early middle school, and would visit them multiple times a day. I found podcasts (which weren't even a thing, really) like Mugglecast, and listened to them on the bus to school every day. As the final book came closer to being released, I met some people online who were also super excited, and were also Mugglenet and Mugglecast fans. We would chat about the books, and hope against hope no one would spoil it for us. (Someone did end up coming into one of the chat rooms and spoiling the last book). I went to the midnight book release, and the midnight movie premiere. I dressed up. I read the book straight through, without stopping to do anything else. I chatted with people about the books almost every day. I listened to 12-hour live podcasts about the books. This was an obsession.

And the "obsession" continues. I still must stop every time I see that Hot Topic has Harry Potter stuff to buy again. It's sad to think that this is the last time they'll be bringing that stuff into their store...but there's always the internet. I continued to go to midnight movie premieres, dress up, and enjoy the series. I act more subdued now, but deep down, I know that the Harry Potter books really did change my life.

Being a slow reader, I tended to give up on books if they took me too long to get to the interesting parts. But I stuck with it for the Harry Potter books. I carried that book that was bigger than my head to school every day as a 10 year old. I learned to love reading, and really understand what there is to benefit from reading, rather than just watching TV or playing games. And I think so many kids learned just the same. It's sad to think that one day kids may grow up without the Harry Potter books being practically thrown in their faces, like it seems like they've been in my childhood. I hope either future generations can appreciate our pride and joy of a series much more than I ever appreciated my parents' favorite childhood books. Or, I hope something as good can come around, so that every child can find the inspiration they need, to love reading, and become a reader.

Thank you Jo Rowling! Thank you so much!