User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4146115-20110714074720

As everyone who knows me knows, I have a deep love for all that is Harry Potter. What the majority of them do not know, is the real reason why I have such an appreciation for it. The story is, of course, truly wonderful. The story of a young boy who has grown up being treated horribly by his aunt, uncle, & cousin, finds out that there really is hope in the world & gets to live the life of a wizard. He makes best friends, finds out he has enemies, deals with young love, school, family problems, & choosing between what is right & what is easy. These are things anyone can relate to although his situations are of course exaggerated. This isn't the real reason for my HP admiration though. Well, not the biggest reason at least. I was in the 5th grade when I first heard of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. Our class had to give oral book reports. A boy, Camden (I will always remember his name because of his help leading me to Harry) went first. He pulled out a long scroll of paper (he was one of those over-achievers, very Hermione), & began describing the story of The Boy Who Lived. I was immediately intrigued. At this time I was living in Lemoore, California. My father was in the Navy so shortly after this I had to move to Bremerton, Washington. A few weeks into living there my mother decided to take my sister & I to the library to check out some books since well, I didn't have any friends yet. I saw Harry Potter & knew that I had to get it. At the time, the first three were already released so I decided to get all of them. I had a good feeling I'd really enjoy them. I had always enjoyed reading but there was something different about these books. It was the first time I had ever been able to be fully immersed in my reading that I literally didn't notice what was going on around me. I felt as if I could not leave my room until I finished each book. I HAD to keep turning the page to find out what comes next. I'd sneak a flash light into my room & read at night under my covers so my mom wouldn't see I was up so late. Harry Potter became my ESCAPE. When I first started reading the books, like I said, I didn't have many friends yet. I was a loner for awhile. Reading was all I could do. When I finally made friends, my mom was extremely strict about me hanging out with them. I couldn't really go out & if I could, I had to bring my sister, & no offense to her, but no kid wants their older sibling tagging along on their hang outs. Therefore I refrained from doing that if I could. I could have friends over but..well this is where things get kinda personal. My dad was an alcoholic. He had been battling with it ever since I was born but my mother did such a good job at hiding his problem that I didn't notice anything until we moved to Washington. That's when things got pretty bad I guess. He wouldn't go to work so he could stay home & drink & sometimes he'd show up to work slightly drunk. I remember one time he almost got kicked out of the Navy for it. When he was home, he would either be in his room, in the dark, with all his tall bottles of sake lying around or he'd be stumbling around in the hall way, trying to get to the kitchen to pour shots of absolut or to smoke. I didn't want people to come over & see this. I was ashamed. I didn't want people to know my home life was like that. In fact, you'd never know unless I told you. I was always a pretty happy person. Until I got home. My mom had to work even harder so she could make up for his extreme spending & his not going to work. She worked 7 days a week & did overtime. She'd never take off work. To this day, she still works that schedule but thankfully all her hard work got her promoted to a supervisor. I've never met such a hard working person in my life. Even though she had a terrible husband & had to work harder than anyone she knew, she still tried making sure I was okay & had what I needed, wanted, & more. My parents argued..a lot. Yelling was something I heard on the daily. My dad was drunk every single day. Every time they would fight, I would be so scared that he would snap & hit her. I knew he'd never do that sober but drunk..he was capable of anything. I began to loath my father for what he did to my mom & our family. My mom was so unhappy with her life & it was obvious. I remember thinking that if he ever layed a hand on my mother I would beat him to a bloody pulp & not feel bad at all. One time when their argument was getting particularly bad, I grabbed a large glass globe I had in my room, I was maybe 14, & had it behind my back. I kept it there just in case he tried something. He didn't. But it makes me so upset to think that I would feel like I needed to hurt my own father. When my mom was at work & I was home from school or if it was a weekend, it would just be my dad & I at home. I cannot even explain how much I hated being home with him. Nothing could distract me from him. Not TV, movies, talking on the phone, sleeping. Nothing except reading Harry Potter. So even if he was outside my room, yelling at me, calling me names, even if he was bumping into walls, making things fall down & break, I could tune him out by reading. I know that may sound odd to those who've never been entranced by a book before, but believe me, I do not exaggerate, it really IS possible. I lived vicariously through Harry & his friends. I wanted so badly to live in his world. He was able to escape his horrible life by going to Hogwarts & my way of escaping mine was reading about him. Reading Harry Potter is what kept me sane. I think I could have turned out really messed up if it wasn't for that series of books. As I got older & I was able to go out more & I could drive myself, I still would rather stay home & read versus go to a party. In fact, I didn't begin partying until the age of 20. Although I'm seen as a party girl now, I still have just as much fun staying home & reading as I did before. Where does my family stand now ? Well, in 2008 my mother FINALLY divorced my father. After YEARS of me begging her. The reason she didn't do it sooner was because she wanted me to grow up with two parents at home. I am still upset over that. My life was hell with him at home. I stand by the fact that I only had one real parent that entire time. My dad lives in Florida now with his mom. She blames my mother & I for his problem. Awesome grandma, huh ? I speak to my dad on holidays. I am still working through my issues towards him. It's really hard for me to get over everything. He says he is sober now but my mother doesn't believe him. I don't know what to believe. I would like to be able to get to a point where I can speak to him normally & not feel fake when we talk. The reason my mom is still working every single day is because he put our family into major debt & she has to pay it all off. How that is fair, I'll never fully understand. He even spent all of my college savings on alcohol & cigarettes. That's a huge reason why I still have issues speaking to him. How he can feel okay about making my mom work the way she does to pay off everything he spent & how he could do that to his own daughter..just wow. Harry Potter was one of the only constant, positive things I've had in my life. 11 years & still going strong. I still read the books to get away & forget about things for a little while. No matter how many times I've read them all, I will never get sick of the stories. It feels so odd knowing that this all began when I was a child & now everything is finally ending as I am now an adult. I always knew, ever since the first movie came out that by the time the last one did, that would mean I am officially a grown up. 50 days from now...it'll be over. Nothing new to look forward to. It's scary. Deathly Hallows the book came out a few weeks after I graduated high school. It was strange that those two momentous occasions would happen around the same time. I was a mess. I'll still be able to go back & read the books & watch the movies...but knowing nothing new will be released..it's hard to come to terms with. 11 years of my life has been spent knowing that I had some Harry Potter related thing to look forward to every year or so. I plan on sending a version of this to JK Rowling. Who knows if she will ever read it but if there is even a slight chance that she will, I'll take it. I want her to know what her books have done for me. I want to thank her with my whole heart. Her books changed my life & kept me from going insane during times when I felt like my world was coming to an end. Reading Harry Potter taught me that there will be times when we must decide between what is right & what is easy. I learned that no matter how much I love reading those books, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget how to live". That, "humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them". That, "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.". That, "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." That, "when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up. " That, "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." That, "Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it." & lastly, "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" Harry Potter's story may come to an end on June 15th, 2011 but as long as, I, KT Lynn Labanowski, live, I will make sure he is never forgotten.