As most students in their senior year do…I finally have reached the ripe-old age of yes, you’ve guessed it…18! While my special day was November 14th, I have seven other friends who have also shared this milestone during the past month. Members of the group participated in some (or all) of the following activities: attending a surprise party (or two), a dinner party, buying lottery tickets, smoking a cigarette, learning to drive stick shift…I speak for the group when I say though not life-changing, it was an enjoyable day. Plus, what could be better than voting in the next presidential election? I sure can’t think of anything!
Turning 18 is associated with “coming of age” or “the ending of childhood.” While I definitely am in no way an adult, I feel by finally finishing the Harry Potter series, a large part of my childhood has ended. I’m a die-hard Harry fan and always go to a midnight to purchase the newest edition. This year when the 7th book was released, I purchased it and only hours later drove to New York to visit my grandparents, then journeyed farther north to spend a month working at a camp in the Adirondack Mountains. Upon reaching camp nearly everyone had finished the book and I begged them not to discuss it in front of me…this was crucial! Usually I can knock a book in a sitting or two, but this year the summer reading requirements of AP English 12 were holding me down. I made the painstaking, yet responsible decision of devoting my almost non-existent free time at camp to finishing Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and finally completed the rest of my reading and note-taking the night before school began. After school was in session, the reading didn’t end as we jumped right into the epic Beowulf and supplementary Grendel. Finally I came to my senses. It was completely necessary to have some Harry in my life, and as things began to wind down I finally started the last book, making sure to read it deliberately as to not miss any details.
My relationship interest in the series began in third grade when my mother ordered the first two books from Amazon.com. It didn’t take long for me to be hooked. I had a Harry Potter birthday, went to parties hosted by the library, dressed up as characters for the release party and would stay in my room for hours on end just to finish the book. Every year the movies came out on my birthday…it was bliss. (The next one is supposed to hit that time of the year as well. I’ll go see it with my college roommate, whoever that may be. I hope she likes Harry Potter…if not, we’ll change that.)
As with all of the later books in the series, I’ll definitely admit I shed some tears. I won’t hint at any of the outcomes of the characters, conflicts/resolutions or the final culmination of the series…who lived or died…Harry, the protagonist, or Lord Voldemort, the antagonist. Author J.K. Rowling beautifully tied all seven books together with foreshadowing, suspense and countless surprises. I’ve grown up through my formative years with the main characters Harry, Ron and Hermione. We’ve experienced our share of growing pains, valiant successes and excruciating failures. Now, however, the flame of mystery has been extinguished. Since third grade anticipating the next book has been always an excitement, and now as a twelfth grader it has ended, as all good things do. For those of you who’ve read the series, you’ll know what I mean when I quote the Facebook group title: “Finishing Harry Potter 7 is like Destroying the 7th Horcrux of my childhood.” Amen to that.
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we are, far more than our abilities.” –Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
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