User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4145741-20110714050356

Swish and flick. That’s all it took. With a wave of Jo Rowling’s literary magic wand, I was hooked on Harry Potter at the age of four. My mom began reading the books to me, and I stared in wonder as Hogwarts flew off the pages and into my imagination. Soon, at five, I was reading to her, and correcting her pronunciations of “Gryffindor” and “Hermione”. In second grade, when most of my classmates were reading Captain Underpants, I wrote a book report on a 400-page Potter novel. The wizarding world enthralled me, and I owe everything I am today to the literary paragon that is Potter.

As a member of Ravenclaw house, I try to deck everything in shades of blue and bronze. I have read and reread the series throughout high school, and have had in-depth discussions with my teachers about everything from the symbolism of Hedwig to the Sorting Hat’s effects on psychological development. I have played Quidditch with a few of my friends, and I even wore Yule Ball dress robes to my senior prom.

Potter has permeated every aspect of my youth, and even continues as my high school career comes to an end. Now, at 17, I am enrolling in college, where I will study English literature, a passion which might have never existed if it were not for that first reading of Harry Potter at just four years old. The real magic in my life is not made by potions, but by the inspiration that the Harry Potter novels have had on me. My personality, career, and entire life was instantly defined by that one fleeting swish and flick.