I know, I'm a dork, but I've seen a Harry Potter movie on terrestrial TV at least once a week since Christmas, and even I'm getting a little bit tired of it. So it made me wonder what my life would be like if Harry never existed - if Rowling never got published.
I'd never have found some of my best friends, that's for sure. Megan and Cody, most importantly, and a handful of others I hold with high regard. I'd never have developed a passion for writing, either, because if it wasn't for the world of HP I would never have started writing at all. I'd probably not be reading as many books as I do, because it was Harry that got me back into reading in my early teens after ditching books when I outgrew The Babysitters Club and Goosebumps. If I hadn't read the Harry Potter books through secondary school it would have been a very dark place for me. They were my escape from a world where I was teased and laughed at often.
These are just the basic effects the books had on my own life. I know I'm not alone when I say that I would be in a different place right now if it wasn't for them. At best, I'd be a reclusive, socially awkward girl. At worst, well, lets not think about that.
People might laugh when I talk about how much Harry means to me, but I'm writing this on behalf of everyone else that literally grew up with Harry.
Seven books that spanned ten years. I was eleven when the first one was published, and twenty-one when the last was released. If you're old enough, think about your years between eleven and twenty-one, and tell me if you had one thing that always pulled you from your dark days, one thing that always cheered you up. One thing that was always stable, always constant and comforting for ten whole years; probably the worst ten solid years any person will go through when it comes to hormones, life changes and peers.
Imagine one singular thing that could do all that for so long. And then it ends.
When die hard Harry Potter fans - the ones that followed each book as it was released, not the ones that jumped on the bandwagon years later - say that when they finished the last book it felt like their best friend died, that's exactly how it felt. If you feel like laughing at that then go ahead, but you only laugh because you don't understand it. And I feel sorry for you, that you didn't get to feel so much for something as simple as a series of books.
So many hearts sank into mourning when people finished that last book. If nothing else, it's an amazing feat from one Joanne Rowling, right?
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