Why I Love Harry Potter So Much

Since 1999 when first I read "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", my life has been a magical ride.

At that time, I lived in a world where adults and other children constantly told me I was strange. I was beaten up, called names, and thought that life would always mean pain. (In "The Tales of Beadle the Bard, Dumbledore says "To hurt is as human as to breathe.)

Eventually, I learned that I had something special. I could sing songs, write poems, paint, learn and teach. I could create magic. This magic grew as I aged, and became more than something I practiced; it became my means of combating a world full of darkness.

Because of this magic, I was able to reach out, and make friends. These friends saved my life many a time, helped me through school, made me laugh, and gave me a reason to get up in the morning after dreams that made me fear opening my eyes. They brought me to levels as a human being that I didn't believe possible.

I've had authority distrust me. I've been told to be silent when I tried to stand up for the truth. It hasn't stopped me yet.

I've had to make choices between what is right and what is easy.

I know what it means to have someone you love, someone who has taught you everything, someone who shaped you into who you are, someone who had the entirety of your trust, suddenly cease to exist, and to be left with infinite questions, disbelief, emptiness, and a searing pain that seems to have a life of it's own.

I also know what it means to let the souls of the fallen live on within you and the love that you can give. To press on, and to dedicate your spirit to the ones who mean the most to you.

I've found a place that has become home to me, where there is always help for those who need it.

It is true that my life will never be as full of epic adventure as the life of Harry. However, as I delve again and again into my well-loved copies of his books, I gain a hope for when my story is over, a hope that people will look through it and see someone who was given enormous adversities, but who overcame them and created a bright point of light in the universe; someone who lived for her friends, and who experienced all the magical possibilities of her world. I want to be remembered, ultimately, as a girl who lived.