Harry Potter Turns 39 Years Old! Reminiscing on the Boy Who Lived.

So I have a confession to make. I am a huge potterhead! Oh wait, you probably already knew that. I absolutely love Harry Potter and deem it as one of the most pivotal memories of my childhood. So in honor of Mr.Potter and miss J.K. Rowling’s birthdays, I thought I reminisce on all of my favorite things about the famous wizarding series.

I was about 6 years old when the first cinematic release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer stone came to theaters. I couldn’t exactly tell you what intrigued me to want to see the movie, but I knew all of my classmates could not stop talking about it. I watched the movie because I definitely did not want to be left out and I fell in love… with Daniel Radcliffe. Yes, I admit it. Daniel Radcliffe a.k.a mister Harry Potter himself was one of my first big celebrity crushes right behind Steve from Blue Clues. Please don’t judge me, but I had a thing for skinny nerds with dark hair even at age 6. But moving on. I absolutely loved the movie with Hermione being my absolute favorite because I felt I could really relate to her. I was the smarty pants in my class which I admit did get on my classmates nerves from time to time. Then of course, I loved the magic. I never seen anything like that on tv or in the theaters at the time so it really stood out. I had my mom buy the dvd and from that point on I was hooked.

The movies that continuously were released was not the only reason why I admired the series. The books pushed me to be a more extensive child reader. I actually really really liked to read as a child and started at about age 3. I have many memories going to the public library every weekend with my mom practicing my reading and building my vocabulary. Once the movies came out and attracted me, all of my friends and I wanted to read the books to the point where we got a little competitive over it. We all loved to read, but weren’t exactly reading books the size of a Harry Potter book. I mean Junie B. Jones cannot compare. (comment below if you remember that series) So as the books got larger, we wanted to see who could read them the fastest and ace the AR computer tests we were given in school.

I was in the third grade when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released which was by far the biggest book any of us had seen. All the top readers in the class including myself rushed to the book fair, picked up our copy and read our hearts out. Needless to say, I didn’t get the highest score of the test and the book was really hard to get through at that age. Regardless it pushed me and I did go back to the series and reread once I got a little older. Now I can say I’ve read the whole series about four times which might not sound that impressive to a lot of Harry Potter fans out there, but hey I try. Even though the book was a little intimidating for me at age 9, it motivated me to try and read bigger books and books at a higher grade level. I now went to the young adult section of the libraries and read books like Revenge of the Sith. Thanks to J.K Rowling and the magical world she created, it pushed me to read more stories and explore other worlds.

I feel J.K. Rowling did something wonderful that only most can hope to achieve and that is continuing to work hard in sharing the story, you want to share. And for us, thank god she never gave up and build the world that she did. 22 years later with Harry Potter at age 39, we are blessed with books, movies, toys, amusement park, food, wands, clothes, and so much more. Here is to many more years of celebrating her creation and stories to come. HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY!

What are your favorite Harry Potter memories and who is your favorite characters? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe to get notified of new posts. Until next time my Bombshells, Bye!