HP Challenge - Day 30 Harry Potter Changes Lives

I am trying to sit here and really think about how to word my thoughts on the affect that Harry Potter has had on my life over the last decade or so. I never really think of myself as an overly obsessed fan it is really just something that I enjoy. I don't camp outside of theaters days before the movie opening, I don't fly across the country to premieres of the movie and I haven't yet been to Florida to Harry Potter world. Although take note that I will one day very soon be doing that.

I think there are a couple of main things that have made an affect on my life in regards to this series. For one, just like many other people in the world it got me to read again. I for many years before the books came out always wanted to spend more time reading in general, but I was never really interested in any other books. Then the Sorcerer's Stone came along and I remembered the pure joy of my imagination. Of being transported to another place and having a connection to fictional characters like they are real, like you could actually know them in real life. Amazing how the brain can do that.

I love how it not only helped me realize the potential of books but it helped the rest of the world do the same. Learn to love their imaginations and reading again. To remember that a good story is really enjoyable and worth reading.

Secondly I really love the camaraderie that is brought on by the mere fact that a bunch of people like the same book. I have watched families come together over this book. Families that sat down together and read out loud to each other so they would all finish at the same time. I have seen friends that have conversed over the subjects found in the books. There are whole college courses that relate the world of Harry Potter to real life. We have even adapted Quidditch to be played and teams in schools to be formed. And most of all there is that feeling you get when you go to the release of the book or the movie and you stand in the cold, dressed up in Hogwarts gear talking to other people in the area that are there to share this experience with you.

I can honestly say that this series will live on for generations. The movies and the books, I already plan on reading them to my children from a young age. My hope is that they will learn the many lessons that I have from the books about good and evil, about friendship and love, about perseverance and triumph, about greatness and how to live up to your destiny even when you aren't really sure that you can. So yeah Harry Potter has influenced my life as I am sure it has for many others and I could never imagine not having it around.