User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4142580-20110713123251

Harry Potter does not MEAN something- it IS something. It is inspiration and imagination and memories, all leading back to when I was just a tiny, quiet girl in the second grade. What's more, it has influenced the way I lived and grew up in ways even my mom couldn't have predicted when she would sit down and read me a chapter of the Sorcerer's Stone every night before bedtime. For years, I dreamed of waking up to find my letter to Hogwarts sitting on the dining room table, and was crushed when it never came. My room is covered in owl-themed objects, from the lamp on my dresser to my bedsheets to the collection of glass owls on my desk; the inspiration was Hedwig, of course. My sisters and I invented a dizzying game loosely based on Quidditch, to be played to the Quidditch theme by John Williams (heard in the first movie). The container that houses my Harry Potter Legos is now overflowing, I have collected so many sets (and in the future, when I have my own house, I plan to display all of them in a giant glass case!). I can't watch the movies with my family- they're constantly telling me to hush, because my whispering of nearly all of the lines and humming of the soundtrack is annoying after a while. If ever I need a quick refresher on the series, I go to my bookcase, where an entire row is filled with the American and English editions of the books, as well as the supplemental books like Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beetle the Bard. These are just a few examples of how Harry Potter has influenced the way I live.

What is Harry Potter to me, essentially? Life. Childhood. That feeling of happiness that blooms inside of you and makes you feel as though you mean something special in this world. Most importantly, it's knowing that one day, I can share these memories and objects with my family and explain to them exactly what Harry Potter means to me.