My Harry Potter

If you haven't been on Facebook or Twitter in the past week, you  may have missed that it has been 20 years since the first Harry Potter book came out.

20....frickin....years.

It was my aunt and uncle who suggested I read the first Harry Potter book pretty much right after it came out. Their kids, my cousins, liked it and thought I should give it a try. Now, the first book, I am not sure where I got it from. I still have it, but no dust cover.

I was 11 when I read the first Harry Potter book. The same age as the main characters. Every book that came out, I became just a little bit more obsessed. It was almost like I was growing up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. You know the angst-y parts, especially in like, the 5th and 6th books? Pretty much corresponded with angst-y parts of my teenage existence. I believe I was the same age as the main characters up until the 5th,  6th and 7th books, when JK Rowling couldn't quite keep up with the once-a-year pace. I don't blame her, as the later books were YHUGE!

Then came the movies. I love the movies, I do. I was a little disappointed in the 3rd movie, as the 3rd book was my favorite. I just feel they tried to be too artistic, leaving out so much "good stuff. Other than that, I thought the movies were great! Casting was pretty spot-on.



Now, a lot of people say that the whole series taught them things. For some younger generations, it instilled a love of reading they never knew they had. For others it was about friendship. Others it was political. Me? It taught me how to not give a damn about what people thought, and to be unabashedly nerdy.

For quite a long time, I'd say some time when the movies were coming out, I "got over" the Harry Potter "sensation" as so many people my age thought it was super nerdy and uncool to like kiddy Harry Potter.

I think it must have been sometime in college or even after I graduated that I honestly just stopped caring about  what other people thought. If I remember correctly, I reread the books, rekindled my obsession, and the rest, they say, is history.

From there, JK Rowling launched the Pottermore site, continuing the magic for us muggles years after the last movie came out.

Now, many quizzes I took me in Hufflepuff. At first I was disappointed, but then very proud. I took the "Pottermore" house quiz and ended up in, you guessed it, HUFFLEPUFF. For those of you that are curious, Breaky ended up in Gryffindor, and we even took a "dog sorting quiz" and DogCPK ended up in Slytherin.

I do have to say, trying to find Hufflepuff merchandise has been hard. They will always make Slytherin and Gryffindor things, but unless they purposefully did all four houses, usually my house is skipped over (I'm lookin at you ThinkGeek!)

However, one of my favorite pairs of sweatpants are my Hufflepuff pants. No joke, the most comfortable pair of pants I have ever owned.


Ok, got a little side-tracked.


What the point of the post is, Happy Birthday Harry, and thank you for inspiring a young generation in a multitude of ways.