User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4172824-20110720030532

Harry Potter. So much to be told within those two simple words that represent a name. A name, that I must admit, was my own. Of course, that would be quite an odd name for a girl, so I suppose I'll just stick with the same old, same old 'Brianna'. It was my second pick, after all. (Not like I had a choice...)

I remember when the first movie came out. I didn't quite understand since I was only... six, seven years old? I never actually read the books until I was twelve, and by then I knew it was too late to every be one of those kids that waited for the mail, watching for an owl to come to my small town of South Georgia and drop me off a piece of rolled parchment saying I was a witch. I knew I was special, but not THAT kind of special. So, I could never really live up to the 'die hard' fans, but I do find Harry Potter a very essential part of my life. It's a great way to pass time (especially when I'm procrastinating on AP homework or when I should be sleeping and getting ready for a Marching Band competition the next day). It's a great way to meet new people. (Have you SEEN all the Harry Potter fandom forums, fanfictions, etc. etc.?)

And it's a great way to be myself.

At my age (and even those younger!) in my small town, no one really reads Harry Potter anymore. It's all about the movies. The movies are great, but it kind of ruins the excitement of turning the next page in the third, or fourth, or seventh book; it ruins the relaxation you get when it takes hours, maybe even days, to read Order of the Phoenix, when it's summed up in a matter of two hours and something-minutes; it ruins the love for literature.

Harry Potter to me is not a book. Or a character. Or a movie that people only want to see because they haven't read the books and want to know what happens.

Harry Potter to me, is a way to be myself, because I can happily get lost in the world of who-knows-what during class, while everyone else is thinking about how they want to do their nails; or what make-out-hill they're going to go to with their boyfriend Saturday night and be perfect little angels the next Sunday morning at church; or what classmate they're going to terroize because of the lack of socialable they have with others. Harry Potter is an escape for me, like many others.

I'm not a die hard fan. Yes, I cried when two very important characters died. Yes, I jumped up and down when the last book came out (just as I did with Twilight). Yes, I still hold that book dear to my bookshelf and will hurt my mother if she even comes close to donating it to some thrift store. I am a fan, a Harry Potter fan. One that is proud to say, that Harry Potter while always be in my heart (if not on my mind) every single day.

Afterall, who doesn't want to be a Hermione Granger? Or Fleur Delacour? Or Draco Malfoy, or Sirius Black? But, of course, I just want to be Brianna... but I would rather be going to Hogwarts than my dump of a public highschool.