User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4184160-20110722010414

What would life be without Harry James Potter? Well, the wizarding community would most certainly be in shambles with Lord Voldemort's return to power. As for us Muggles here - well, I think it’s safe to say an entire generation would be lost. I am a young girl on the verge of adulthood, and as I look back on the previous ten years that seem to have passed far too quickly, I can't help but feel emotionally overwhelmed and indebted to the young orphan who inexplicably impacted my being for the better-the wizard who developed my voracious appetite for reading, who taught me that it is one’s attitude not one’s circumstances that determine the outcome of each dilemma faced. I was first familiarized with Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar that would quickly become a universal trademark at the tender age of eight, a time when the blur between reality and fantasy was slowly, but surely, beginning to fade. Favorite holidays like Christmas and Easter became spoiled as I discovered the creatures I had placed my faith in were mere figments of the imagination. However, Harry Potter was not what I would accept as a child’s fairytale - the spell the series cast seemed to be too true to ever consider deeming as false. I, of course, was shaking in my boots to have an owl from Hogwarts’ Owlery place an acceptance letter on my front step the day of my eleventh birthday (surely my parents would agree to let me go faster than you could say ‘magic’). Midnight releases were by far the best. Nothing came close to the excitement that consumed my being while camping out at the local bookstore, anxious to have the latest installment materialize before my very own eyes, an occurrence that was magic in its own. Finally counting down the seconds to midnight (“Three, two, one!”) after facing hours of impatience was a reward reserved for the most loyal of any Harry Potter fans. What was even more satisfying was the realization that I would soon be warm under my covers with no other obligation but to see how many words my mind could devour as I fought my fluttering eyelids. Surely, I wouldn’t be able to finish all 700 something pages in one night. The reassurance that the book would be by my side in the morning was the blanket of security a child of such an age required. The emotional security that emanates from the series has not only been a compelling force in my childhood, but the glue that has held me together in my adolescence as well. No matter how painful or uncertain circumstances have seemed to appear as I have slowly but surely crept towards inevitable adulthood, Harry Potter has been the solitary force that has promised to remain stagnant and keep me grounded. Harry Potter reiterates the lessons we are taught as young children but have often seemed to forget - that good will always defeat evil, love conquers all, that remaining true to oneself in the most dire of circumstances is invaluable. With the release of the final installment of the movie franchise, the Harry Potter generation seems to believe that a legacy is ending. They are naïve. The legacy has only begun.