User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-3286928-20110714211538

"What Harry Potter Means To Me"

To answer this question is difficult; it goes beyond merely stating that "Harry Potter has shown me the magic of my life and how I can always help my friends, etc, etc." I have always believed that magic - true magic - exists, and though I know that the Harry Potter novels show only Rowling's interpretation of magic, they have also opened doorways into untold universes of possibilities. When I started reading the books at ten years old, I was sure that one day, an owl would fly through my window and deliver a letter to me, giving me the hope that I would escape the doldrums of my everyday life and experience something impossible. As I grew older, however, I new that this would never come true; but I was nevertheless grateful that the Harry Potter books have given me something I can look back on, and take energy from, and learn from.

Morals and lessons aside, Harry Potter taught me many things: that we must be strong, that we must never give up, that we all have challenges to face. But mostly, it has taught us that we must find the magic in everything. That we must not rely on books and movies to fill our dreams, but to find magic in our own world, to create our own worlds, and to see through the eyes of those people who inhabit our new worlds.

I will miss this series when it is concluded later this evening (especially since I do not get to watch it; I am working as doorman at the local movie theater, so I get to watch everyone else see it), but I will not dwell on its loss. I will go out afterwards, and continue to search for my own Hogwarts, my own magic.

Because to me, Harry Potter means magic. The magic within my life, and the magic within myself.