User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4183133-20110721191030

The first time I encountered the Harry Potter series was in 2000 at the tender age of 7 years old. I had received a bright and shiny new hardback copy for christmas from my aunt and was instantly mesmerized by the mere cover. As soon as I read the first sentence, it took me by the hand and promised never to let go. It never did. Long story short, Harry and his friends followed me throughout my childhood and taught me many life lessons that would ultimately save me from a damaged heart and a shattered outlook on life. I’d like to fast forward to January of this year, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. I had always known that I was slightly disconnected from everyone else, but I could never figure out just why. I had been experiencing what is called depersonalization where I felt like I didn’t know who I was. I would wake up and have to search my brain for my own name. I would look at my mom and feel like I didn’t know who she was at all. I would go to school and be physically present, but I felt as though I was just existing. I went to a therapist to figure out where it all went wrong, and I was told that when my best friend died a year and a half previously, I spent too much time being happy for everyone else, that I did not grieve properly for myself. Somewhere in the mix, I completely lost myself. In the last six months, I have learned so many lessons that I almost feel as though I have no more to learn. I began to truly live. I am a steadfast christian so I prayed like crazy and trusted God that I would eventually find my way. I know he heard me because there was one fictional character that played a huge non-fictional role in getting me back to who I truly was, Harry Potter. Since I grew up with Harry, I felt that the books knew me, the real me. When I read them, real life memories of my own came back to me. I remembered the sheer innocence of running around the house shouting alohomora at door knobs with sticks and I remembered sitting up next to my window with my legs against my chest just like Harry did in the Sorcerer’s stone. I remembered drawing my own Marauder’s Map with my own house in it and making up secret passages. I remembered standing up to my childhood bullies because I knew that if Harry Potter had the courage to do it, I could to have the courage to do it, and I did. When I read those books these past few months, I remembered me. Not any other me, not a me pretending to be happy, not a me trying to be something I wasn’t, just the wonderful me I was made to be. I got back to the pure imagination that anyone needs to be happy. I stopped having crying fits everyday. I stopped having spine chilling worries that I would never know who I was ever again. I stopped having nightmares of forgetting my parents and what I had ever lived for, and I became incandescently happy. I am now in a happier place in my life than I have been for many, many years. What does Harry Potter mean to me? I’m fairly certain that Harry Potter is in me. He has guided my life and when I’ve strayed off, forgetting the most vital things about me, he has saved the day once again and brought me back. Harry potter means my childhood. Harry Potter means my happiness. Harry Potter even means my sanity because he was able to bring me back to it! I’m prepared to say that Harry Potter means almost everything to me and everyone else who has read it in this broken world. You see, not all of Harry’s adventures can be found in the seven wonderful pieces of literature. Harry has been a massive source of hope. I know that this all may sound cheesy, but it’s the truth! Countless kids all over this world have been saved by the boy who lived. There’s this thing called the right choice, and it’s sweeping the nation because the kid with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead has the courage, hope, love, and bravery to make it. These kids aren’t becoming like Harry, they’re becoming themselves and staying true to themselves. It’s incredibly hard to put all of this in words and make it portray how I really feel. The most important thing is that I know what Harry Potter means to me, and I do because to do so, I have to know my true self as well. Thank God for Harry Potter. Without it, I may have been lost forever.