Harry Potter was what led me to my passion and what I want to do for a career: creative writing. I’m not even kidding. Because of this, this series means so much to me, even as I’ve stopped keeping up with it.
My older cousin gave me the first book when I was seven. I tried reading it, but I was just too young at the time. Then the first movie came out when I was ten, and I went to see it with my dad. My entire life changed, and yes, being that dramatic is accurate. I went home and read through the entire first book within two days; I immediately got all the other books out at the time. And that was when I started writing.
First it was fan fiction, as it is with most people. Really terrible Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, and yes, Harry Potter fan fiction. It got better as time went on, and around the age of twelve, I began developing my own stories. Eventually this all amounted to my choice, so many years later, to major in creative writing.
Midnight release parties became something I did every time a new book came out, even though I preordered my copies. I waited impatiently for crowds in theaters to die down so I could fully enjoy the movie releases. I was a beta user for Pottermore, got sorted into Hufflepuff, and after that I began noticing that there was far less Hufflepuff merchandise than for the other houses and would get irritated by it, like it was a personal offense.
Then it was over. It felt a lot like an era ending, like something important had stopped. I still reread the books, and moved on to other franchises to fixate on (currently the Marvel Cinematic Universe), but I still returned to Harry Potter. I cried the first time I went to Wizarding World at Universal Studios Hollywood, and spent literally hours just in that section of the park.
It’s still something I feel so connected to, something that will be with me the rest of my life (although after Cursed Child I stopped keeping up with the franchise).