User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-74.207.72.199-20110714233439

It's hard to describe what Harry Potter means to me.

I say this, because it's rather hard to sum up your entire life -- or most of your life, anyway -- in a few simple words. I read the first Harry Potter book when I was eight years old, and was seventeen when the last book was released. I spent most of my childhood and adolescence reading the books, watching the movies, listening to the soundtrack, and losing myself to fantasies of one day being able to obtain Hogwarts and experience the same magical world that Harry did. When I was in elementary school, my school was in walking distance, and so I walked there every day. On my eleventh birthday, I walked there sobbing, because I had not received my Hogwarts letter, and though I knew deep down I wasn't going to, there was still a part of me that had hoped beyond hope for it, and was crushed that I had to go to my Muggle elementary school anyway.

But what does Harry Potter mean to me?

I think the best way to answer this question is to look at what Harry Potter has taught me. Yes, I enjoyed reading the books as works of fiction -- who hasn't? But like many others, I took something away from them, too. Yes, they are fantasy. Yes, they are fiction. But in a way, in many ways, they are real. Not in the sense that there really is a wizarding world, and a school where people go to learn magic, but in the sense that when you take away the charms and spells, the characters in the book are more real than we realize, as are the things they teach us.

Without going into too much detail, when I was a child, I didn't have a very happy home life. Like Harry, I didn't have any adult figures to support me, and I often felt like I got the short end of the stick. But through reading those books, through seeing how Harry dealt with living with the Dursleys, how he kept his head above the water when everyone around him seemed to determined to shove him under, I learned to never let others kick me around, to believe that I, too, was worth something, even when everyone else insisted I wasn't.

Through reading about the trials and tribulations with the Dementors, boggarts, and other fear-inducing monsters (such as the acromantulas), I learned about the importance of facing your fears -- that no matter how terrifying something may be, you CAN get through it, so long as you face it with your chin up and eyes open wide. I came to fully understand what the phrase, "courage is about feeling fear, yet doing what you're afraid to do in spite of it" meant.

Through reading about Harry's bond with Ron and Hermione, I learned the value of true, unbreakable friendship. Through that, and through seeing the difference between how Harry lived and how Voldemort lived, I came to understand and fully realize just how empowering love really can be, and how important and strong it is.

Most of all, throughout all of the series, I learned about hope. I came to understand what "it is always darkest before the dawn," meant, and I came to remember to always search for a way to turn on the light, even when it seemed that life was at its darkest.

Harry Potter taught me about overcoming challenges, vanquishing my fears, and always, always believing in my self, my loved ones, and that no matter what happens, I will make it through and it will get better. It gave me the strength to continue on when nothing else could.

So I guess, in the end, that's what Harry Potter means to me. It's an inspiration, a light in the dark, something that I will hold close and cherish years and years after the final movie has premiered.