Harry Potter Week: Marci {2}

When I first met Marci back in 2009 we bonded over our love for travel and our unique and special European experiences. It wasn't long before we bonded over, well, pretty much everything else: Harry Potter, "How I Met Your Mother", The Office, etc. When I started reading Marci's post I felt like maybe I'd written it myself and somehow she snuck it out of my brain--but of course it makes sense that Marci and I have one more thing in common. Enjoy this delightful post!

Christmas 1998. I remember being slightly disappointed opening the box to find a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone sitting in there. Of course I told Uncle Jeff thank you, but I knew there was no way I would be reading that book. A few of the kids at school had mentioned it, but I just didn't understand what all the fuss was about. I was far more interested in my Baby-Sitters' Club series and Nancy Drew to even think about wizards of at some school in England. It sounded so boring to me.

Months passed, and the book sat on my shelf collecting dust. One weekend Aunt Brenda came in to town to visit and could not stop raving about that boy wizard, Harry Potter. She was a teaching 6th grade and said she was literally having to confiscate the books from kids who were trying to read them under her desk in her class. If they were THAT GOOD, I figured I could stumble through the first one and grab a few more Accelerated Reader points. The next morning I was begging my mom and Aunt Brenda to take me to the library for the next 2 books.

Once I became immersed in Harry's world there was no holding back. When I love stuff, I mean I REALLY love it. And boy, was I one weird little kid. When my younger sisters wanted me to play school with them, I would only agree to play if we could play "Hogwarts" (ha!) I wanted the Harry Potter bedsheets, the school supplies, anything and everything because I just couldn't get enough.

With my family being Muggles, they couldn't quite understand it all. My mom actually tried to tell me once that maybe I shouldn't be reading them, because one of her parenting magazines said that the books talked about "witches." Naturally, I had to explain to her that a witch is simply the proper term for a female wizard and that Hermione Granger was one of "the good guys", and also wasn't she proud that her 10-year-old was reading a 734 page book? There was no more conversation after that.

Then of course the movies started coming out, and I remember thinking how different Dan, Rupert, and Emma looked from the Harry, Ron, and Hermione in my head. Still, I loved them and had to drag my mom with me to the theater until I was old enough to go alone to see Prisoner of Azkaban, Oh man....I hated that movie. I hated it so much, I didn't even see Goblet of Fire in theaters because I was still holding a grudge from PoA. (side note: these are also "The Dark Years" when I was a cheerleader and it wasn't cool to read books and like Harry Potter. Yeah, that didn't work with me for very long)

My absolute favorite thing about Harry Potter is that it follows you everywhere and unites everyone, literally. I spent much of the summer after I graduated high school traveling in Europe and I spent 2 weeks at camp in Italy. I remember being absolutely terrified, because I was of two Americans there. The other countries represented were: Germany, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Croatia, Denmark, etc. Everyone spoke English, but how on earth was I going to start up a conversation with a girl I'd never met from Croatia? "So...do you like Harry Potter?" Turns, out everyone was huge fans. And that, people, is just how big Mr.Potter is. Fourteen countries, and there was one thing everyone could agree on. Absolutely amazing.

Absolutely amazing indeed! Love on Marci in the comments section, won't you?