The Final Countdown
Jul. 14th, 2007 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenny_wildcatStupid little me got thinking and then I got all nostalgic and sentimental (but not so weepy this time - saving that for next week). I didn't go to bed until about 12:15 am and then it hit me:
This time next week, I will have a copy of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' in my hot little mitts.
I've been an obsessive Harry Potter fan since I was fifteen. Back then, I was a tall, scrawny dweeb with glasses and a retainer. I was the little grunt for the yearbook staff and I didn't even have my driver's license yet. I read the first three Harry Potter books the summer before my sophomore year and read Goblet of Fire the first day of school (my mom surprised us with a copy after we got home). I then spent the next three years going nuts with waiting for the fifth book and getting even more and more obsessive. Two more years, and Half-Blood Prince was out (as was the old wizard). Most of my obsession has been fueled by the Internet and forcing my friends to go to midnight showings and releases with me. None of them are insane about this as I am. Only this past year did I meet someone with whom I could relate:shellic and I became roommates my last year of college and I finally had a fellow Potterholic to pal around with in real life.
So now, we're in the home stretch. All the theorizing, all the discussion, all the movies, all the fandom-ness is down to these last seven days (In my case: seven years spent waiting for seven days before the seventh book - 07-07-07 weddings, eat your heart out).
It's 5:00 in the afternoon right now. If I do Deathly Hallows the way I did Order of the Phoenix, I will probably have finished with the book this time next week. That's how it goes with waiting for something big: you always spend more time waiting than you do actually enjoying the experience (Goblet of Fire: Harry says that the days leading up to the First Task in the Triwizard Tournament were much worse than actually going at it with the dragon).
I don't know when something this amazing and awesome will come around again, so I have to gush for a minute: I have been greatly inspired by Jo Rowling and the Harry Potter books. I have branched out into other genres and I have learned to think about things in different ways. Without Harry Potter, I might not have majored in English and I might not enjoy writing the way I do. The theorizing has helped me learn to synthesize information and not treat information in a vacuum. But most importantly, I have made friends and enjoyed myself and enjoyed life the way I think few people ever get to enjoy. Harry Potter is one of my wide and varied interests, but it's a big part of the fun I have. I've learned to be braver than I ever was before and I've learned to stand up for myself. I've learned that heroes are flawed and I've learned how to defend people and things that I love. It's not "just" the books that have done this - it's how I internalized what I love and subconsciously made it a part of me.
Whatever happens next week - whoever dies, whoever lives, whoever is on the good side, whatever turns out to be a Horcrux, whatever theories turn out to be true, it's been a fun and wacky ride, not to mention very soul-enriching.
Let the final countdown begin!
This time next week, I will have a copy of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' in my hot little mitts.
I've been an obsessive Harry Potter fan since I was fifteen. Back then, I was a tall, scrawny dweeb with glasses and a retainer. I was the little grunt for the yearbook staff and I didn't even have my driver's license yet. I read the first three Harry Potter books the summer before my sophomore year and read Goblet of Fire the first day of school (my mom surprised us with a copy after we got home). I then spent the next three years going nuts with waiting for the fifth book and getting even more and more obsessive. Two more years, and Half-Blood Prince was out (as was the old wizard). Most of my obsession has been fueled by the Internet and forcing my friends to go to midnight showings and releases with me. None of them are insane about this as I am. Only this past year did I meet someone with whom I could relate:
shellic and I became roommates my last year of college and I finally had a fellow Potterholic to pal around with in real life.So now, we're in the home stretch. All the theorizing, all the discussion, all the movies, all the fandom-ness is down to these last seven days (In my case: seven years spent waiting for seven days before the seventh book - 07-07-07 weddings, eat your heart out).
It's 5:00 in the afternoon right now. If I do Deathly Hallows the way I did Order of the Phoenix, I will probably have finished with the book this time next week. That's how it goes with waiting for something big: you always spend more time waiting than you do actually enjoying the experience (Goblet of Fire: Harry says that the days leading up to the First Task in the Triwizard Tournament were much worse than actually going at it with the dragon).
I don't know when something this amazing and awesome will come around again, so I have to gush for a minute: I have been greatly inspired by Jo Rowling and the Harry Potter books. I have branched out into other genres and I have learned to think about things in different ways. Without Harry Potter, I might not have majored in English and I might not enjoy writing the way I do. The theorizing has helped me learn to synthesize information and not treat information in a vacuum. But most importantly, I have made friends and enjoyed myself and enjoyed life the way I think few people ever get to enjoy. Harry Potter is one of my wide and varied interests, but it's a big part of the fun I have. I've learned to be braver than I ever was before and I've learned to stand up for myself. I've learned that heroes are flawed and I've learned how to defend people and things that I love. It's not "just" the books that have done this - it's how I internalized what I love and subconsciously made it a part of me.
Whatever happens next week - whoever dies, whoever lives, whoever is on the good side, whatever turns out to be a Horcrux, whatever theories turn out to be true, it's been a fun and wacky ride, not to mention very soul-enriching.
Let the final countdown begin!
