Harry Potter and the Girl He Saved
Every year on this day I write a
Facebook post in honor of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling and I talk about how
this book series saved me during my rather turbulent teenage years. I was
introduced to the world of Harry Potter when I was 12 and even though I’m 26
now, I am yet to find a book series which makes me as happy as the Harry Potter
world had. A few no doubt have come close. But there was something about being
a rather naïve twelve-year-old, believing that life couldn’t be going to a rather
boring school and coming back home and keeping up with the apparently rest of
the brilliant students in my class. I would actually daydream that Harry Potter
might come bursting through the doors of our Assembly Hall and whisk me away on
an adventure. Tell my school there had been a mistake, and that I rightfully
belonged to Hogwarts. The love for the series grew so intense that I owned
Harry Potter merchandise (thanks to relatives who live abroad and love me a
lot), and I was the cause for envy for a lot of kids. But still, I wasn’t the
brightest button when it came to studies. So…how did it matter that I owned
Harry Potter merchandise?
One of the other things that I owned
was a diary with a lock, and it was a Harry Potter merchandise. The cover was
of Harry Potter and Ron Wealsey, on their way to Hogwarts on the train. Of
Harry offering Ron some of his food, and trying to be his friend. When I was
younger, I didn’t realize who was my friend and who wasn’t. And it took me twenty-six
years to cast of people who were quite toxic from my life. Because something
that Harry Potter did teach me, a friend never makes you feel bad about
yourself.
Well, I moved on and through all
the wrong decisions I made through life, I came across amazing people who
shared my love for Harry Potter and who helped me understand that everyone goes
through bad things. But you cannot let one bad thing define who you are. Sometimes,
I think the only reason I pulled through school was my immense love for Harry
Potter. The stories and the movies always had me looking forward to something
in life. No one understood it then (least of all me) but through most of my
teen life I was depressed.
Depression would be a pretty
obvious thing of course when you’re reduced to feeling like you’re not good
enough and nothing good would ever happen to you. Maybe it’s because of this
that all the characters that I write always like keeping to themselves, that
they all seem to suffer and sometimes doesn’t know what is it that has hit
them. When you’re depressed, there’s always something you need to hold onto so
that you don’t sink. So for me Harry Potter was that anchor. I’m sure J.K.
Rowling knows that she’s saved countless lives by bringing the boy wizard into
our lives.
But from my part, I would have
turned out to be quite different had I not had Harry Potter as a ray of hope in
my life.
