User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4162781-20110723032244

Her-Mee-Own. Hah-Grid. Dum-Bleh-Door. Professor Squirrel. I still remember struggling through these seemingly third dimensional names as an exasperated nine year old. As a self-certified bookworm, I immediately set myself up for the task of reading this golden book (with a stupid looking little boy riding a broomstick on its cover) that I had received as a present from a dear family friend in 2001. I had unknowingly taken the plunge into something so magical that it would engulf the rest of my pre-teen and teenage existence.

After pulling me out of the only school I had known until the third grade and moving my brother and I to rural Upstate New York, where our only neighbors were a mile away, my parents granted me the consolation of picking out one video game at Staples. I chose Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I spent every waking moment of my time in New York reading the first four books (the only ones out at the time), helping Fred and George collect Bertie Bott's Beans on my prized game, role-playing via AOL chatrooms (which I highly don't suggest to any young child who prefers to preserve their innocence), joining virtual Hogwarts communities via Expage and Xanga, etc. I actually learned HTML and code as a child solely for the purpose of being able to create my own Harry Potter universe.

I remember many a time when I would duct tape my mom's expensive chopsticks together so that I could battle Voldemort in my bathroom.

As I grew up, Harry Potter just became something of a norm. I engaged in riveting fanfiction to pass the time between book releases; I acted out movie scenes and lamented my American citizenship, for I could not audition for the British-based films, in anticipation of the movies.

I recently walked through Broadway in NYC with my friends as a post-graduation/pre-college date (we splurged on tickets to see the Harry Potter Exhibit) and was astounded at the immensity of the simple phrase "It All Ends" on those gigantic billboards. It hit me then that... I have stayed with Harry until the very end, but ultimately, Harry has stayed with me until the very end.

To me, Harry Potter means the happiness of my childhood. In an era where such childhood simplicities that children engaged in during the 20's, 50's, 90's, etc, have been so mutilated by media, I'm glad that I had something so wholesome and powerful to abide by and lean to for guidance. Harry Potter has granted me that lost childhood.