User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4154191-20110716051644

Conveniently, I just wrote a personal essay for english class in which we were supposed to pick a word that means the most to us. Needless to say, I picked Potter, so here is some of that essay: Harry Potter. Hearing, thinking, or seeing that one name honestly makes me feel simple, pure happiness. It encompasses friendship, childhood, my dad, laughter, tears, summer, and one of the greatest stories ever told, all in just three syllables. The very first thing that comes to mind when I hear Harry Potter is Snape, or Alan Rickman, saying it in his unemotional drawl; it therefore never fails to make me smile. But I am also reminded of the day I got my first Harry Potter book. As a kindergartener, I sat on our gray couch in our old apartment’s living room, right near the big plant, when my dad came in with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I even remember reading the blurb, before I plunged into it and read the whole thing on that couch. After that book I immediately became a Harry Potter fanatic. We sometimes read the first book together in my parents’ bed, curled under covers with my brother. For my 7th birthday, my dad gave me the second Harry Potter book, the Chamber of Secrets, inscribed with: for my darling daughter on her 7th birthday. Love, dad. Every time I pick up that book, I will be reminded of my dad, who passed away the next year. It was the last Harry Potter book he gave me. Potter also reminds me of my friends, as Harry Potter is a frequently discussed topic and all things Potter-related excite and elate us. A Very Potter Musical and Sequel are, too, associated with Potter, and are arguably the funniest plays ever written. Quotes from these two Youtube sensations are found in my group of friends’ conversations roughly every 4 seconds. Any AVPM/S reference can be sure to make me smile and remind me of my friends. I have reread the Harry Potter books innumerable times. Potter is always a source of comfort, an entrance to a magical world I have loved throughout my childhood. The joy of turning a page of my worn-down Potter books, even seeing an old stain or apple-juice spill, will never be rivaled. Harry Potter books even taught me the semicolon; the first time I had noticed one was in the fourth Harry Potter book, and I noted how often J.K. Rowling used them; they are now my favorite piece of punctuation. It is hard to express every emotion and feeling that rushes to my heart at the word Potter, but know that I have tried. Harry Potter is the story of Harry, one of friendship, struggle, evil, good, and magic. It reminds of my own life, my friends, and my family, and my life without out Harry Potter would be inconceivable.