Harry Potter

“Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone” holds a very special place in my heart. It’s like remembering the first date to someone you have fallen in love with. It’s hard for me to review this book in any way other than praise as I have read it so many times. Aside from being a wonderful story I have many blissful memories connected to it. Reading it always brings me somewhere new and yet I have been there before. Like most nerdy phenomenon’s it connected me to other nerdy people that led me to other nerdy media, thus ensuring my nerd future. 

My next thought is held up to wide debate, but I will say it anyway. I like Harry Potter as a character. This is less of an issue in the first book of course. Part of the attraction to Harry Potter for me was feeling a parallel to Harry’s sorrow. That’s not to say I suffered the same misery but all children feel alone and have some sort of grief.

Harry had a life filled with mourning. He lived in an abnormal home being detested under the stairs in a cramped cupboard. You felt his despair and isolation. He was filled with good but surrounded by evil, until he got a letter that changed his life forever. Harry discovered he is a hero and celebrity in a secret world, a world of magic. He is going to escape from the Dursleys and live in a school full of witches and wizards. Yes he was different all along because he was special.

The Harry Potter series created a fire inside me that I will always be thankful for. I believe it was one of the many experiences that led me to become an artist. Always being an introverted person I loved to spend time alone drawing, writing and being creative. Reading Harry Potter had an effect on me that I had never felt before within a book. The world of Harry Potter felt incredibly real to me. I couldn’t put the books down. I wanted to draw what I could see when I closed my eyes.

Sometimes it feels like I spent so much time with them that I myself went to Hogwarts. The people, places, and magic were a wonderland in my mind that I could always go to. These visceral experiences allowed me to take what JK Rowling had given me and spin them into a complete Stephanie Universe where anything could happen. Despite what I was experiencing in my own life I felt hopeful that I could find change as Harry did. Someday I would find my Hogwarts letter. I believe I did with my acceptance into Art school, living my own version of Harry Potter. Yes I was different all along, like Harry, because I was special.