Thursday, July 31, 2014

How Harry Potter Saved My Life

I have a story to tell.  So please, everyone gather around.  Grab a seat and a cup of tea.

Once upon a time, I was a little girl.  Hard to imagine a time when I wasn't a snarky, feminist blogger, but there was.  I wasn't a princess, just a girl who lived with her mom in their house.  No cottage nonsense, or white picket fence.  But it was home.  One day, July 15th 2000, my mother and I spent the day together.  We went garage sailing, ate lunch, played Trivial Pursuit, and much to my dismay had to go to my mom's office.  I stayed in the car, lounging back in my chair while my mom did boring work/adult things inside.  Eventually, she was done and we got in the car to go home.  We never made it.  On the way back, a man fell asleep at the wheel and hit us head-on.  Since my seat was laid down, I ended up in the backseat.  The jaws of life were needed to rescue my mom from the vehicle, and she was in a coma for a while.  I ended up moving in with my aunt, so she could take care of me.  Being young and now pretty broken (compound fracture in right ankle and broken right clavicle), I needed amusements.  The amazing people my mom work with got together and bought me a plethora of distractions.  Included in these was the first four Harry Potter books.

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My first foray into the magical world of Hogwarts and dragons and spells happened at a time in my life when I was broken, physically and emotionally and mentally.  I was eleven years old and had to wonder if my mother was going to die.  How does someone that young cope with that kind of overwhelming emotion?  I did was kids normally do; I escaped.  I ran into a world where most things could be fixed with a simple spell or that any book could have the answer (no shock I identified and still do with Hermione).  And I fell in love with it all.  I gobbled up the books one after another, and could barely contain myself when I heard the first movie was being made.  I became obsessed with Tom Felton and Daniel Radcliffe who were clearly meant to be in love with me as well; they just didn't know it yet.  And as they grew up, I grew up with them.

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Just as Harry, Ron, and Hermione survived, I also survived.  But the magic that I felt in those books never left me.  I'll be the mom who reads Harry Potter to her children and has it as a nursery theme and hosts viewing parties and play quidditch.  I'll do it all.  Because these books will never leave me.  When my heart was broken and damaged, this is what healed them and just because they are over doesn't mean that part of my heart will be ripped out.  Instead, it'll be a part of me forever.  Always.

Now that the sappy part is over, I can move on to the exciting part!  I recently found a month long Harry Potter challenge.  And I'm using August to do it!  I'm hoping I'll be able to post every day, but will maybe do a couple posts combined to ease up on the pressure for myself.  But what better way to celebrate the amazingness of this series than with a blogging challenge?!  Besides a viewing marathon, which I'm currently in the middle of doing with two different people (I've watched SS with one friend and am up to the last two with another).  All Harry Potter all the time guys!  It's just the way it should be.  So prepare for my first post tomorrow!  Mischief managed!

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