User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4151038-20110715161633

It may seem a little Grandiose, but to me Harry Potter represents self-determination in its truest form. It tells me that the choices we make determine the people we are, and not the other way around. This means more than just the big decisions, like Hallows or Horcruxes, or The Elder Wand versus the wand of holly. The decisions that make a person's character are the ones made every day, like whether a pudgy boy with a lost toad and a penchant for herbology is worth befriending, or if sticking your neck out for a half-giant and his pet dragon is worth the risk. At the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the freshmen Airforce ROTC students recieve a card with a lieutenant's insignia on one side and a quote on the other. I can't remember who it was by or the exact wording, but it was something to the effect of "The big decisions a man makes have already been made by the hundreds of thousands of smaller ones he makes every day." That quote sums up what Harry Potter means to me. I grew up with these books, I was eleven when Harry started at Hogwarts on the silver screen. When life seemed nihilistic at times Harry Potter was one of the storries that told me that even our every day choices not only matter, but make us who we are and determine our destiny. I know they are supposed to be children's books, but I will still hold the series dear to my heart long after I have raised my own children to love them.