User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4200521-20110725164038

"There was a girl who came up to me on the street the other day, she bloomed out of the pavement... and she must have been in her early twenties, and she said to me 'You are my childhood.' About the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

I wish I cold say that this is how I feel, too, because that would make this quote fit so much better, but it's not. She is not my childhood. She is my life. I read the series as a child, and it was a huge part of my childhood. But I've learned to respect and love the series so much more as an adult. I relate it to every aspect of my life and learn to understand my own life through comparisons between it and Harry Potter's.

I'm not even sure what is so amazing, to be honest. But there's something about a boy who is nobody special, in fact his parental figured mistreat him terribly, going off into a different world fill with magic, where he is famous and destined for greatness. The series is also planned so well that almost every aspect of the series comes back in a larger way later in the series, constantly playing with our schema and working every part of our brains. All of the secrets are both obvious and mind-blowing-- simple and extravagant. The characters are also so flawed and so realistic. Harry loses is cool and is often wrong and hot-headed. Rowling even keeps Harry's age in mind, introducing girl issues around puberty age, as well as rejection, jealousy, nerves. He is a boy that is famous and extraordinary, but still goes through the same self-doubt and nerves that we all do-- but even more-so.

The funny thing is my mother had to force me to read the first book. My cousin had been reading it and her mother told mine that it had gotten her to read when she was not a reader, so my mother bought the book for me. I was hesitant, as I am not a fantasy story reader and did not like the idea of reading about a boy wizard. But Harry Potter isn't like other fantasy stories. It doesn't take place in some distant land that needs a map to understand. It's just behind the bar, or through the fireplace, or through a forest. But you can only see/ pass through if you have magical abilities. It just seems to much more real. I was hooked. I read the first 3 books, which were out at the time, immediately, and begged my mother to let me go to the midnight release party for the fourth one when it came out. Even now, I do not read books often. But I read Harry Potter over and over and over again. I learn more and realize new things each time.

That's what JKR did. She created a reason for a generation of computer gamers to read. She gave young children a reason to read almost a thousand pages at a time. We guess the secrets, we cry with Harry, we laugh with Harry, we are nervous, excited, terrified, and angry with him. I go through an emotional journey with every book.

Even outside of the series, itself, it inspired me to want to write. I never thought about writing before reading this series. But now, my life-dream is pretty much to be JK Rowling-- to write something that can touch people's lives and help them through life. What a magical thing in a world of muggles. It had inspired me to try to inspire others.

So what does it mean to me? I have no way of answering that question. It's magic, hope, love, despair, tragedy, empathy, joy, fear, and everything. It gives me a way to express myself and understand the world. That's it, really. What does Harry Potter mean to me? Everything. It means everything. My childhood, my life, my heart, my soul. My everything. That's really the only way to explain it.

And even that does not do it justice.