User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4130480-20110709083304

Harry Potter has been a major part of my life for the past 10 years. I may not have been the 100% most die-hard name-my-kids/pets-after-characters type, but don't let that mean I am any less devoted. Just in different ways. I plan on getting a tattoo that matches my best friend's Deathly Hallows tattoo. Harry Potter is one of the first things we bonded over. I plan on someday visiting the Wizarding World, and have been warned that I cannot go without my BFF. I'm excited that there will be four tickets, then I can take my best friend, my boyfriend, and one other individual. (Probably her boyfriend, haha) To win this would be both of our dreams come true. We have gone to 5 out of 7 of the movies together, the last three of them being midnight premiers and midnight releases for the last two books. (Our parents were strict, and we were still in High School. We weren't allowed until after we were considered old enough.)

It's hard for me to describe what Harry Potter is to me. It's my second world, my fantasy home. I read a lot as a kid, and there's no place I wished more was real than Hogwarts. My whole family has felt that way one time or another. What person doesn't ever at some point in their life wish they could get away from their parents and enter a castle to learn magic and how to fight evil? When I started High School, it was more than a new phase of education. It was a new town, new faces, new places, new names. Harry Potter helped me cope, and helped me to find some of the awesome friends I have today.

Another thing I love about Harry Potter is how much it has inspired people, young and old. I've met 30-40 year old fans, and 4-8 year old fans. Even my nephew who is 1 year and 9 months preferred the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie my sister brought home to his usual favorite Elmo movie. But these people, young and old, have created some of the most amazing and beautiful things because of the Harry Potter universe. I've seen homemade jewelery, props, accessories, read blogs about themed parties, recipes, plays, musicals, fan writings, art of all types, blogs, vlogs, websites run by 13 year olds, 16 year olds running fan sites and publishing fan-books. and charities who are convinced a hand-full of active online nerds can and will save the world. To me, the hard work and dedication of the Harry Potter Fandom is the most beautiful thing that ever resulted from any fandom I know of. Harry Potter inspires people to change our desperate and broken world that really needs a change. What can be better than that?