Words cannot describe how big of an influence Harry Potter has had on my life. This day, July 31st, is marked as Harry Potter’s birthday and is JK Rowling’s actual birthday. It’s a day some nerds would just ignore. I, however, would like to take a minute to express my gratitude to JK Rowling for writing this amazing story.

I vividly remember the first day that I read Harry Potter. I was sitting at the doctor’s office with my mom, awaiting news on whether or not I was going to be having heart surgery. I had a condition named wolf parkinsons white or WPW. From what I understand, the signal from my brain to my heart was getting looped, causing something like a murmur. It malfunctioned more and more whenever I was doing physical activity. As a seventh grader, I was involved in basketball, soccer, and softball. The longer it went unchecked, the likelihood that it would overwhelm my heart to a stop increased.

So, I’m sitting there, on the table, awaiting news and my mom pulls Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone out of her bag. She tells me she’s heard good things about it. I shake her off and tell her no. I was too nervous to deal with a new book. But, my mom tells me just to listen and then reads the first chapter aloud to me as I waited.

I obviously have a rather emotional attachment to the books. I was reading the first two as I went through heart surgery twice. The first one didn’t work so exactly two months later, I went back in for a second. Reading stories of Harry, Ron and Hermione gave me a much needed distraction. Moreover, it gave me a whole, new, magical world to live in.

The books may be about magic, but at the end of the day, a magical trio is most memorable. The friendship of Harry, Ron and Hermione develops before our eyes. We actually see them learn to trust one another. We see them grow to love one another. They even let each other down occasionally, only to fight through… to remain friends.

And it’s defined a lot about me. I believe the people in your life should be your patronus. I believe that light will overcome darkness. I believe in the magic of love.

So, Harry Potter will always be a large part of my life. The pillars of my morality lie within the books.

P.S. If you’re curious, I sorted myself as a Ravenclaw as a young kid. Now, people claim I’m a Gryffindor. Which lead me and my friend Meghan to make a whole podcast about the subject of Nature vs Nurture in the Harry Potter series. It’s one of my better pieces of work from my time at BuddyTV (unless you count my Twilight review).