User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4167347-20110719015548

The entire Harry Potter series spans over half of my entire life (I am now closing in on 20 years). I have been enthralled by this, pardon the pun, magical series since I was around 10 years old (and the year leading up to my 11th summer was full of me asking my mother if she thought I would get my Hogwarts letter in the mail or by owl) and I don't think that fascination will ever go away. I will always have the books to read, the movies to watch and younger generations to teach. Not only have I read the books and seen the movies multiple times, but I have also used the Potterverse as a role-playing guideline on far too many sites (most of them my own creation) to mention for the past 7.5 years.

Harry Potter is not just 7 books and 8 movies, it's a lifestyle (and anyone who's participated in the HP vs. Twilight battle should definitely know this), a philosophy, an experience, a mindset. It's not just something to read or watch, it's something to understand and think about and imagine.

Harry is someone we can all aspire to be -- not the hero of the world, but someone with the courage and love in his heart to do absolutely anything. Never once does he fail or think twice about doing something beneficial. He never runs away from his problems, never tries to get other people to fight his battles, but at the same time he's a normal, scared 11-to-17-year-old who doesn't know what he's doing and can only hope he doesn't make things worse.

The fact that I can rattle off information about the history of Harry Potter at a whim but I can't recite anything from my actual school classes even after studying says something, don't you think?