User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4157534-20110717012052

I have always been a rather odd girl. I've never really been able to connect with one special person, such as a best friend. I was different from everyone else. I liked to read, I was shy, and I was just all around awkward. So I got through elementary and middle school with my smarts, my family praising me along the way. So, getting back to the wizarding world. I started off with the movies, not yet at an appropriate reading level for the book series. I watched all the way up until the Half-Blood Prince, until I decided enough was enough, I had to see what everybody was raving about even if I was young. I finally got to reading the books and fell in love. I read the entire series in about a month, not able to put the books down. I would ignore my chores, calls to dinner, and other duties just to sit down and read. It would help me get through those times where I felt strange and alone, because the whole idea of magic is strange, in turn, helping me feel less lonely. And while the magic of the books was fascinating, it was the characters which made me become obsessed with the idea of Hogwarts and the wizarding world. I was able to connect with a social outcast like Ronald Weasley, a know-it-all like Hermione Granger, and even a hero like Harry Potter. Because Harry Potter taught me it is okay if you're not the stereotypical hero (sportiest, most popular, richest person) in school. You can be your own hero. Like Harry Potter, I will make my own destiny, because I'm going places. And that's what Harry Potter helped me realize, which means the world to me.