Happy Birthday, Harry Potter!

This post is a little different than ones I’ve made so far. I don’t know exactly where I’m going with it as I begin but surely I’ll find my point before I’m done.

I’m about to let you all in on a very dorky side of myself. I sort of consider it a guilty pleasure and yet anyone who knows me knows that I can’t help but beam with pride of my Harry Potter obsession and knowledge. And today, July 31st, is Harry’s birthday!

The 7 book series has held a very special place in my heart for over a decade of my life now. I didn’t watch it when I was really young. I remember there being a lot of fear back then as there still is now, concerning the witchcraft and potential evil that can be associated with the books. I was 11 when I began my journey in the Harry Potter universe, which if you’re familiar with the stories, made it a very relatable age to begin. Here’s a little backstory.

When I finished the fifth grade back in 2008, my family relocated to Savannah, GA from Jefferson, GA. My dad moved down earlier during the school year to start his new job, and my mom, sister, brother, and I followed in the summer. My dad lived in this terrifyingly run-down, 1 bedroom apartment the few months before we joined him. We came to visit several times and one time while we were visiting, my parents decided we would spend our evenings watching the first 5 Harry Potter movies. It was an INSTANT hit in our family. We loved them so much and begged to watch more but we were only allowed to watch one each night until we completed the five. Since then, my husband and I have moved back to Savannah, and although those apartments are on a side of town we don’t often pass, every time we do, my heart swells with the memories of close family bonding that occurred over this magical story.

During 6th grade I was still required to read books for A.R. points, and each Harry Potter book was worth something like 30 points when most books would award 2-5 points. So I discovered a love for these stories on paper and not just through film. At the time, only the first five movies had been made. Three more would be released over the next few years, so my only option was to immerse myself in the last two books to discover the ending.

Looking back, I think another reason I have such a fondness with the Harry Potter series was the movie theatre experience. We didn’t go to the movies much as a kid, and I still don’t now. It’s expensive, high stress, and always freezing cold. We usually waited for movies to come out on DVD and then we’d buy them to watch. The last three Harry Potter films were some of the few movies that were a whole family affair at the theatre.

I wish I could tell you how many times I read the books throughout middle, high school, and college, but I honestly have no idea. The next time I remember reading them was while I was wedding planning in 2017. I remember bringing The Half Blood Prince on my honeymoon to read next to the pool or on the beach. I don’t think I opened it a single time, but only because I was having too much fun on my cruise.

I brought the Half Blood Prince along with me when we moved to Phoenix, Arizona three weeks later. We were pretty busy so it took me quite a while to finish it. Once I did, I picked up the next and began reading through the series.

I should mention my mental state during my year in Arizona. I didn’t realize all this at the time, and only in hindsight have I recognized the patterns and true difficulties I dealt with during my time there. Devin and I moved to Phoenix about 3 weeks after we got married to complete a Residency program at Christ’s Church of the Valley. We were living with an older empty nester couple. We were placed in a home in Mesa when most of our resident friends lived in Surprise/Peoria. For those of you aren’t familiar with Phoenix, we lived almost an hour away from everyone we knew. We left both of our families back on the east coast and all our friends back at college in Florida. I could write an entire post on the depression and loneliness I faced during this first year Devin and I were married. I never called it depression when I lived there. It’s only through my healing that I’ve experienced in the last few years that I’ve truly been able to recognize the pain and heartache that I struggled with. But like I said, I can go into those details another day.

So now that you know where my head was at during this time, let’s talk about the audiobooks. Around Christmas that year, a friend of mine in the program was discussing her shared love for Harry Potter with me, and recommended that I try out the audiobooks. I hadn’t ever listened to audiobooks before, but she insisted it was a wonderful way to read. Major honestly time, she logged me into her own sister’s account who owned all seven books and allowed me to download them and listen. (I’ve since bought them, so no worries, I’m not “borrowing” them anymore)

I started gobbling up these books like I never had before, and I’ve not turned back. It became my escape from reality. A way to be in another world, not missing my family, or desperately wanting to feel comfortable in my own home.

I’m not kidding when I say that since then, I have probably listened to the entire series around 7 or 8 times. I know that I have gone through all of them more than 10 times between reading and listening. I find myself to be too much of a multitasker to enjoy actually reading books. Audiobooks have allowed me to drive, cook, clean, shower, workout, yardwork, pretty much everything, while also listening to these books.

In addition to them being near and dear to my heart because of circumstances that I’ve been through, they are truly a beautifully crafted story. JK Rowling is an absolute genius. She pulled out all the stops in building this thorough, dense, intricate world that these characters live in.

The characters go through each of their own tragedies, hardships, successes, and failures, some of which we can relate, some we can’t. They tell the story of friendships, sacrifice, loss, love, bravery, and so many others in a captivating 4,224 pages. I’ve even seen some really interesting imagery throughout the books that I’ve been able to relate to my spiritual life.

I truly don’t believe there’s anything inherently evil about these books, even with the inclusion of magic. It’s no different than our classic Fairy Godmother, Elsa, or even Narnia, which is classically known by Christians in a riveting tale that mirrors so much in the Bible. If you’re hesitant to show them to your children, watch them first. Educate yourself, then educate your children on the reality of magic, and that the pure fun and imaginary magic in these stories have to stay within the world they were created, and that real magic in real life is real and is evil. I never had a hard time distinguishing as a child the different between Harry Potter and real life. It’s all about the intentions behind it.

Anyway, now that I’m here at the end of this post, I’m still not sure I found much of a point in all this, other than telling my story. Harry Potter means a lot to me. So much. I hope you all read it and fall in love with it the same way I have. That’s all. TTFN. Ta-ta for now.

PS. They have been building these gorgeous illustrated versions over the last few years. The first 4 are out right now, but this set of 3 was on sale on Amazon the other day for just $53, originally $120. They’re gorgeous. Think about buying them.