15 years ago I picked up a book,
10 years ago a movie gave me my letter of acceptance on my 11th birthday,
5 years ago I graduated with the Gryffindor gang
and tonight my journey came to an end with the last days of my childhood having officially faded.
Thank you for teaching me bravery, courage in the face of adversity, the value of loyalty, perseverance, hope and sticking by my beliefs even when the end of the world is marching on my doorstep, but best of all to love and live.
It is no coincidence that I feel a close kinship to the saga that was Harry Potter. No- I don't secretly think I am a wizard, nor do I think I am any kind of magical creature, or so on. But when Harry Potter came out I was that 11 year old kid that believed in the impossible and the magical- plus it didn't hurt that I always got to play him because my birthday was only a week away from his. Harry Potter always seemed to come out right around the same giant life changing moments I had and struggled right along with me. No, I wasn't fighting a Dark lord for the continued survival of a magical world in a literal sense, but I found parallels none the less. Harry's world was thrown into chaos in the book as I made the shaky transition into middle school and again in the movie as I left behind everything I knew and moved to a new town in a new state. As Harry traveled through hell and back in black and white, I traversed high school (which can easily outshine hell on any day in any memory). When the movies depicted life altering changes and Harry's quest to find out who he was and how he fit into the grander scheme of life, I was questing my way through college and facing some of those same hard questions Harry was. To me, Harry had always been the pinnacle of who I wanted to be. Strong, courageous, brave but not without his share of faults that his friends still loved him for. He experienced the awkward moments of puberty with me, the loss of those I love, the feelings of being torn between two worlds and never really knowing your place in either, the pangs of confusion, frustration, and disappointment in those around me, the transition of becoming an actual adult in the eyes of those I looked up to, the disillusionment of humanity and adulthood, the joys of friendship, of awkward teenage love, of finding your path, of looking into the horizon and never knowing what the next day might bring and just living.
Once again, Harry was there when I am facing a life changing moment. This time next year there is no definite plan for my life. Oh there are things that I want to do, like Harry's dream of becoming an Auror, I dream of teaching, guiding and informing about our great history as human beings. But like Harry, I truly have no idea what the future has in store. I hope that I can make the transition into adulthood with as much grace and elegance as my literary counterpart. But like Harry, college as I know will exist no more. Friends will still stay in contact but we will drift apart as we go on to live our own lives. Friends will leave, some not by choice. Stories will end, doors will close. But, like Harry, I have a shot at true happiness.
Right now, I can not paint the picture because I am no Madame Trelawney and tea leaves have never been my speciality. But one final thing Harry and I have in common, is that for both of us there is a great and wonderful author who is writing my story and sharing it with the world. He has always known the story- even knows the ending- and is revealing the path to me much like Harry's was to the world.
I only hope my ending is equally as epic.
Alas, now I must board my own train and go "on" with my life. But I will always know, love and cherish the moments I spent with this wonderful story and the characters that felt so much like my own. With literary friends that told me it was okay to be different, to stand up for what I believed was wrong, to encourage me to believe in myself and in those around me, that proved time and time again that deep down everyone is the same but it is that choices we make that define us and helped me realize that at the core of my life should always be love and hope.
Without those, we have nothing.
"Don't pity the dead, Harry. Instead pity the living. Especially those who have lived without love."
