You may remember that a little while back I wrote a letter to Harry Potter, talking about what he's meant in my life. In honor of the release of the final movie, I wrote another post about Harry Potter and what it means to me. There's so much to say I could probably write a hundred letters and never say it all (side note: I now want to write a bunch of Harry Potter letters and then recreate the Letters from No One chapter in Sorcerer's Stone with either some poor unsuspecting soul or my own children some day far in the future (like leading up to their eleventh birthday when I bequeath them the first book (If I manage to wait all the way until they're eleven. They may be closer to seven or so when they get the first book))). Anyway, here is that post (sorry Facebook friends, you've already seen this. But you should read it again :) )
"I was seven years old when my sister brought home the first Harry Potter book, at which point she promptly forgot about it. I tried picking it up a couple of times, but never got past the first page. Then, finally, I picked it up and was determined to finish. It took three months, but I did finish it and I read it whenever I had time to. I can remember the exact place in the highway I was when I finished and still smile each time I pass it. And I set about procurring and reading the next book as soon as possible.
For the longest time I was always a little younger than Harry, but that meant that he was almost like an older brother to me, a mentor about the periods in my life to come, while still helping me deal with what was happening currently. Harry wasn't perfect, he wasn't self-assured, and he didn't have all the answers. Harry made mistakes, he got upset, he said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Puberty was no easier for him than it was for anyone else.
But he was always able to survive and deal with whatever came his way. He showed me that anything could be accomplished and survived with determination. It wouldn't be easy, but doing the right thing and not giving up would be worth it in the long run. I'd be better for having made the hard, but right choice.
And it wasn't just Harry who became my mentor. Like many female fans I've talked to, Hermione was like the fictional version of myself. She was bookish, a teacher's pet, and a know-it-all. She didn't make friends easily or fit right into the social structures of school life. She knew what it was like to be a loner, emanored of books while people around her found her completely bizarre for her love of school and reading. And yet, she always had the crucial answers. Without Hermione, the trio would've been sunk long ago. Because she enabled Harry to know what he needed to go up against Voldemort and survive.
Because of Hermione, I was perfectly fine to be who I was, without a crippling fear of ridicule from my peers. Because I knew that there was nothing wrong with who I was and that I didn't need a large group of friends for my life to be worthwhile. It was the quality of the friends I chose that mattered, far more than the quantity I had.
Which brings me to Ron. A lot of people, myself included for a while, saw Ron as comic relief and sidekick. He was an intrinsic part of the trio, but you couldn't pinpoint why he mattered. But Ron is as loyal as a Hufflepuff. He is brave (and okay, stubborn) as a Gryffindor ought to be, but he is also completely loyal to Harry, sticking with him through thick and thin. They've had rough patches (hello, Ron's only human) but he never left for good. And when he came back, it didn't get any easier. In fact, it just got harder. But Ron was there for his friends, despite all he had to lose. And of all the trio, he had the most to lose.
As a child, I was sick for a lot of time, especially around third and fourth grade, right before the fourth book had released. And more often than not, it was Harry, Ron, and Hermione that kept me and Mom company at night. They kept me from wallowing in self-pity and losing my sanity altogether, showing me how to keep going even in crappy circumstances. Because things can always get better, but you have to be willing to work for it.
It's at least partly because of these three that I never allowed my IBS to dictate how well I did in school. The example they set is why I would get up after a night of staying up until 2 AM and sleeping curled in a ball, and still went to school if I wasn't still hurting. Harry Potter and my parents taught me the perseverance I needed in my life to succeed as well as I have.
For me, these books have been more than simply words on a page, or even interesting stories. These people have come alive for me in a way few other books have managed. In Order of the Phoenix, when Sirius was getting sucked into the veil, I had to stop and shut the book, not wanting ti read what happened next. Mom came in then and asked if I wanted to put the book in the freezer, which is what we do with books that are frightening or make us cry.
And when the seventh book came out, I was finally seventeen. I was the same age as Harry, at the same point in our lives. And while I wasn't in a position where I had to save the world, I was still at a transitional point in my life. I was about to enter my senior year of high school, and like Harry, I was going to have to graduate and make my way into a new world. And while many may not like the epilogue, that epilogue kind of gave me hope that I would make it. If Harry and the rest of the gang could find peace and happiness, I was sure I could too. Harry was there again to tell me that I'd be okay.
It's because of Harry Potter that I have made some of the best friends in my life. Without Harry Potter, I might not have made as a strong connection with Ron as quickly. Who knows if we'd have been more than passing accquaintances? And without Ron it is quite possible I never would have heard about the Running Start program and finished college in 2 years instead of 4. Without Ron I might have never found Western, the absolutely perfect university for me.
Without Harry Potter, there's no way I would have met Natalie Hoyt or Chris Godwin or Erin Brewer. I never would have met the wonderful people at the Hive, people who've taught me a lot about life and loosening up. The people I met in London started the process of loosening me up, but the people at the Hive helped finish the process, turning me back into a twenty-year-old young woman who can have fun rather than a quiet, homebody who knows more about responsibility than acting like a teenager. These people have enriched my life more than I could have imagined.
I've earned my Snitch wings as a Harry Potter fan. I've sat 19.5 hours in line for the Order of the Phoenix midnight movie premiere, in 103 degree heat. I've frozen to death and burned my hands on a hand dryer waiting in line for the Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie premiere. I have the inscription on Gringotts memorized and have freaked people out by opening foreign editions of the books and reading the first page because I have it so clearly in my mind.
I've fought tooth and nail for Jeopardy victory as a Ravenclaw and corrected people making Jeopardy questions when they've gotten it wrong (like the fact that JK Rowling's middle name is not Kathleen but took her grandmother's name because she doesn't have a middle name). And of course I've had people look at me with confusion, shock, and (very rarely) awe when I recite such facts. I can quote the musicals practically word for word and I've walked through campus dressed in Hogwarts gear.
It's been fourteen years since Harry entered my life. The first time I picked up a Harry Potter book, I'd never cooked dinner or done laundry or driven a car. I had few friends and nowhere near as big a book collection. The internet was still young, DVDs were a novel device and Walkman's were still common. It was a very different world than where we are now, and a simpler time for me.
When I started reading I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't know how to write good stories, or even that I wanted to. But I think JK Rowling is part of the reason why I've become a writer. The idea that entire worlds could be created and people brought to life, simply through words ensnared my imagination. Harry and Jo made me realize I had stories of my own to tell. And that I didn't need to be a writing god to do so.
Harry Potter is one of those generational things that will forever unite everyone in this generation. Even people who don't like Harry Potter are bound to it in a way that's hard to explain but can't be escaped. Everyone knows who Harry is, knows at least part of his story. And it has tied children, growing up all over the world, to each other. One common ground that may seem small, but may end up one day being the difference between peace and war (even if it may simply be a small peace, in the sense of getting along with someone unexpected).
Many fans are saddened because they say this is the end of Harry Potter. But it's not really. It's the end of an era certainly, and I will be weeping at the premiere at the comclusion of another chapter in my Harry Potter experience. But Harry Potter is like Dumbledore at Hogwarts. As Harry says, "He'll never be gone. Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him." Harry will always be there for those that need him, just as "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home" (Jo Rowling, UK premiere). That is Harry's legacy."
For the longest time I was always a little younger than Harry, but that meant that he was almost like an older brother to me, a mentor about the periods in my life to come, while still helping me deal with what was happening currently. Harry wasn't perfect, he wasn't self-assured, and he didn't have all the answers. Harry made mistakes, he got upset, he said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Puberty was no easier for him than it was for anyone else.
But he was always able to survive and deal with whatever came his way. He showed me that anything could be accomplished and survived with determination. It wouldn't be easy, but doing the right thing and not giving up would be worth it in the long run. I'd be better for having made the hard, but right choice.
And it wasn't just Harry who became my mentor. Like many female fans I've talked to, Hermione was like the fictional version of myself. She was bookish, a teacher's pet, and a know-it-all. She didn't make friends easily or fit right into the social structures of school life. She knew what it was like to be a loner, emanored of books while people around her found her completely bizarre for her love of school and reading. And yet, she always had the crucial answers. Without Hermione, the trio would've been sunk long ago. Because she enabled Harry to know what he needed to go up against Voldemort and survive.
Because of Hermione, I was perfectly fine to be who I was, without a crippling fear of ridicule from my peers. Because I knew that there was nothing wrong with who I was and that I didn't need a large group of friends for my life to be worthwhile. It was the quality of the friends I chose that mattered, far more than the quantity I had.
Which brings me to Ron. A lot of people, myself included for a while, saw Ron as comic relief and sidekick. He was an intrinsic part of the trio, but you couldn't pinpoint why he mattered. But Ron is as loyal as a Hufflepuff. He is brave (and okay, stubborn) as a Gryffindor ought to be, but he is also completely loyal to Harry, sticking with him through thick and thin. They've had rough patches (hello, Ron's only human) but he never left for good. And when he came back, it didn't get any easier. In fact, it just got harder. But Ron was there for his friends, despite all he had to lose. And of all the trio, he had the most to lose.
As a child, I was sick for a lot of time, especially around third and fourth grade, right before the fourth book had released. And more often than not, it was Harry, Ron, and Hermione that kept me and Mom company at night. They kept me from wallowing in self-pity and losing my sanity altogether, showing me how to keep going even in crappy circumstances. Because things can always get better, but you have to be willing to work for it.
It's at least partly because of these three that I never allowed my IBS to dictate how well I did in school. The example they set is why I would get up after a night of staying up until 2 AM and sleeping curled in a ball, and still went to school if I wasn't still hurting. Harry Potter and my parents taught me the perseverance I needed in my life to succeed as well as I have.
For me, these books have been more than simply words on a page, or even interesting stories. These people have come alive for me in a way few other books have managed. In Order of the Phoenix, when Sirius was getting sucked into the veil, I had to stop and shut the book, not wanting ti read what happened next. Mom came in then and asked if I wanted to put the book in the freezer, which is what we do with books that are frightening or make us cry.
And when the seventh book came out, I was finally seventeen. I was the same age as Harry, at the same point in our lives. And while I wasn't in a position where I had to save the world, I was still at a transitional point in my life. I was about to enter my senior year of high school, and like Harry, I was going to have to graduate and make my way into a new world. And while many may not like the epilogue, that epilogue kind of gave me hope that I would make it. If Harry and the rest of the gang could find peace and happiness, I was sure I could too. Harry was there again to tell me that I'd be okay.
It's because of Harry Potter that I have made some of the best friends in my life. Without Harry Potter, I might not have made as a strong connection with Ron as quickly. Who knows if we'd have been more than passing accquaintances? And without Ron it is quite possible I never would have heard about the Running Start program and finished college in 2 years instead of 4. Without Ron I might have never found Western, the absolutely perfect university for me.
Without Harry Potter, there's no way I would have met Natalie Hoyt or Chris Godwin or Erin Brewer. I never would have met the wonderful people at the Hive, people who've taught me a lot about life and loosening up. The people I met in London started the process of loosening me up, but the people at the Hive helped finish the process, turning me back into a twenty-year-old young woman who can have fun rather than a quiet, homebody who knows more about responsibility than acting like a teenager. These people have enriched my life more than I could have imagined.
I've earned my Snitch wings as a Harry Potter fan. I've sat 19.5 hours in line for the Order of the Phoenix midnight movie premiere, in 103 degree heat. I've frozen to death and burned my hands on a hand dryer waiting in line for the Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie premiere. I have the inscription on Gringotts memorized and have freaked people out by opening foreign editions of the books and reading the first page because I have it so clearly in my mind.
I've fought tooth and nail for Jeopardy victory as a Ravenclaw and corrected people making Jeopardy questions when they've gotten it wrong (like the fact that JK Rowling's middle name is not Kathleen but took her grandmother's name because she doesn't have a middle name). And of course I've had people look at me with confusion, shock, and (very rarely) awe when I recite such facts. I can quote the musicals practically word for word and I've walked through campus dressed in Hogwarts gear.
It's been fourteen years since Harry entered my life. The first time I picked up a Harry Potter book, I'd never cooked dinner or done laundry or driven a car. I had few friends and nowhere near as big a book collection. The internet was still young, DVDs were a novel device and Walkman's were still common. It was a very different world than where we are now, and a simpler time for me.
When I started reading I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't know how to write good stories, or even that I wanted to. But I think JK Rowling is part of the reason why I've become a writer. The idea that entire worlds could be created and people brought to life, simply through words ensnared my imagination. Harry and Jo made me realize I had stories of my own to tell. And that I didn't need to be a writing god to do so.
Harry Potter is one of those generational things that will forever unite everyone in this generation. Even people who don't like Harry Potter are bound to it in a way that's hard to explain but can't be escaped. Everyone knows who Harry is, knows at least part of his story. And it has tied children, growing up all over the world, to each other. One common ground that may seem small, but may end up one day being the difference between peace and war (even if it may simply be a small peace, in the sense of getting along with someone unexpected).
Many fans are saddened because they say this is the end of Harry Potter. But it's not really. It's the end of an era certainly, and I will be weeping at the premiere at the comclusion of another chapter in my Harry Potter experience. But Harry Potter is like Dumbledore at Hogwarts. As Harry says, "He'll never be gone. Not as long as those who remain are loyal to him." Harry will always be there for those that need him, just as "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home" (Jo Rowling, UK premiere). That is Harry's legacy."
The Tearjerker I-Can't-Believe-It's-The-End Songs
Open at the Close by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYGUxbGOL8c&feature=related
End of An Era by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vDjOv_B4Gk&feature=related
Marching On by OneRepublic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWKEXvtsWRE
Missing You from A Very Potter Musical (listen to the lyrics. It applies nearly as well for our feelings about Harry) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOI7hnqjvsY
Hallows (Beyonce's Halo Parody) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y_opQoYVHQ
Don't Leave by Ministry of Magic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMsjWSLZL7U
Where Are You Now by Honor Society http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqlZdqONvY
The Meaning of Lonely by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_WNYZkRbk&feature=related
Those Voices from A Very Potter Sequel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9S7bFt_1B4
Harry Potter Will Never End
This Is Not Harry Potter by Hank Green http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZaCxfiUHs
Days of Summer from A Very Potter Sequel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjOr0ZHpS4&feature=related
Book Eight by Hank Green http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGS4nIzelpA&feature=related
Get Back to Hogwarts from A Very Potter Musical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onLHQzROass&feature=related
What Harry's Meant To Us
Firebolt by BYU's Divine Comedy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySN8Q4U6wys
Not Alone from A Very Potter Musical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gctiXV0pu_0
Not Alone by Darren Criss (Yes, I needed both. Besides, now Harry Potter is singing it to us) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUquTr3Tcv0&feature=related
To Have A Home from A Very Potter Sequel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8IfUj4ndXo&feature=related
I'm Going to Hogwarts by Lauren Fairweather http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_5EX6llDZk
Tell Me A Story by Librarian Lily and The Tales of the Bard (This song doesn't actually exist online. I only have it because I got a CD at Yule Ball and I don't believe there's a way to post MP3s. Sorry)
Tribute to the Boy Who Changed Lives (And The Ones Who Changed His)
The Boy Who Lived by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P66zZVoYUDw&feature=related
Harry Freakin' Potter from A Very Potter Sequel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Ffm7jRXtg&feature=related
Waving Flag by K'naan (it's more the sentiment of the song and only some of the lyrics that make me think of Harry (could also apply to the remaining members of the DA at Hogwarts in year 7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMo9vNVkPOs
Sirius Black, Fly Away by WeasleySweaters (one of the best Friday Parodies ever. It doesn't even sound like the same song) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0vGdmzUEhU&feature=channel_video_title
Give It Up by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZMyJ7r2pgE&feature=related
Mischief Managed by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWdhpHioVqM&feature=related
Fan Pride
We R Slytherins (Ke$ha Parody) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiO3dyAT7pA
Ravenclaws (Friday Parody) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJ8-qMd400&feature=related
Lumos Flies by Ministry of Magic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d27qTpzBHKs&feature=related
This Isn't Hogwarts by Hank Green http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Gt9m64LBg
We R Lightning Scars (Ke$ha Parody) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvV0f5SAZU&feature=related
The Harry Song (Lazy Song Paroday) by WeasleySweaters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG_ZzYqKI_4
Accio Deathly Hallows by Hank Green http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvvFiZyEyTA&feature=relmfu
Get Pumped to Fight Voldemort
Voldemort is Going Down from A Very Potter Musical http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JoOuM9dT6w
No Way from A Very Potter Sequel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-rxyizcX18&feature=related
Spells and Scars by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQdp3O-7Ri4
We Are the DA by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uFk8JcwfX4
The Hallows by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8YWAbhY2Ds&feature=related
Hunt You Down by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1MzSnj3MSg&feature=related
Flight of the Prince by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZJlBmw4J_c&feature=related
I May Lose Everything by Ministry of Magic (a little more low-key, but great lyrics that especially dovetail with the end of Deathly Hallows) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j88w2ZDRTJo&feature=related
I feel like a horrible person because I haven't seen the last movie yet! And I don't really know if I want to. I mean, if I do then I have to accept that HP is over, really and truly. Can't I just live in denial forever?
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That's me, stick my head in the sand and pretend nothing's wrong here... Nope.
It's good to see the last one, but I know what you mean. I couldn't even listen to my Harry Potter music without feeling depressed until just recently when I got into Pottermore. Just remember, it'll never really be over. People will still debate and have sing alongs and proclaim what house they are. And Pottermore gives us a whole new opportunity to experience it all again and keep it going
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