What Harry Potter Taught Me
By Ashley Munoz
Every time I listen to how someone grew to love Harry Potter, they always tell me how they read it with their siblings or how their parents read it to them every night, they tell me how they stood in line during midnight releases and midnight showings for the movies. My parents never took me to those midnight releases or read the books to me, they were always too preoccupied with what was going on in their lives. I found out about Harry Potter from my older sister. We shared a room when we were kids. There were three of us girls. My older sister had her twin bed in the corner, and in the opposite side of the room, my twin sister and I had a bunkbed. I was on the top bunk, and every night I would watch my older sister read Harry Potter. I never really knew what she was reading, only that she loved it and I was very much interested. However, since it was her favorite book, I wasn’t really allowed to read it. My mom also would never let me read them because she thought I was too little for them, I was only eight years old and not at all too young. And so, I never knew what Harry Potter was until the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came out in theaters. My mom took all of us to see it on Thanksgiving and I instantly fell in love with the story. By this time, I was ten, and used to think Harry was very cute. I also loved the adventures he went on and the friendships he made, the rivalry he and Malfoy had. Everything about this movie I fell in love with, and I had to read the books.
Once school started again after the holidays, my 5th grade teacher passed around Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and then put on the audiobook for us to follow along. I was so excited, and it was there I first began to read Harry Potter every day at school. At the end of the year, my 5th grade teacher gave a bunch of Harry Potter things to us during our end of the year party. It reminded me of my sister’s Harry Potter birthday party, and how she received a bunch of Harry Potter toys and merch, and I was so happy I had Harry Potter stuff of my own also.
During the summer after fifth grade I began to read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets without my sister knowing. It was a matter of time before she caught me one day, and instead of getting upset, she was happy and said I could borrow them. I read that book in two days and when I finished, I found Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on my bed, ready for me to read. And so that was my journey of how I found these books and fell in love with them. The movies, however, my parents only took us to see the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, for the rest of the movies, I had to rent them or find bootleg copies of them. I remember always renting Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when I was in middle school, it drove my twin sister insane. Once I was in middle school, Harry Potter seemed to be something that would make you from being cool to a nerd. So, I pretended to not like Harry Potter so I wouldn’t be picked on. This led to me to other book series WarriorCats, Lord of the Rings, Cirque du Freak. I was failing all my classes expect English, for it was the only subject that seemed easy and fun for me. Throughout the rest of my school years, I read a lot and my English classes were always A’s. I never told anyone or showed anyone how obsessed I was with Harry Potter, because I thought it would make me too nerdy and I would get picked on. I remember that time where Harry Potter was seen as nerdy and uncool in high school. So, I couldn’t really be myself.
Once I graduated High school, I had read the serious a million times, and watched the movies just as much. My older sister grew tired of the series and passed down all of her Harry Potter merch and books to me, which I still have some of it to this day. Somewhere between my first years of community college, I found this site called Fanfiction and began to read other people’s versions of Harry Potter. I couldn’t believe how big Harry Potter was. I never knew how many characters there were with their own backstories. It made me read the books in a new way, noticing more things and possible storylines. I became more obsessed with this series. This site also showed me that I shouldn’t be embarrassed to love Harry Potter, a habit I got from middle and high school and hadn’t broken yet. I soon stopped being embarrassed to be myself and love the things I love. Harry Potter taught me to be myself and not care what others think of you. My friends now all see me as the Potterhead in the group and I fully accept the tile.
I also started working at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter the summer after it opened. I started in retail first. It was so much fun, and I began to meet people who were just as obsessed and accepting with Harry Potter just as much as me. I remember one morning I was working inside Honeydukes, and this girl about my age at the time, came in the store, she was so amazed, her eyes literally in tears. She reminded me of how I reacted when I first visited Hogsmeade as a guest, overcome with childhood nostalgia. My favorite thing working there was also seeing kids fall in love with the series or how their parents would tell me how they read the books on the plane ride to California or were planning to watch the movies when they got home. I then had to take a break from work due to school. I then came back a year later and was hired to work at the Three Broomsticks and the Butterbeer Carts, I was sad I didn’t get to go back to retail but I was grateful I was still working in Hogsmead. Working there is very challenging sometimes and I like to think that the only reason why I’m still there is because of my love for Harry Potter and sometimes I still meet the coolest people and the biggest fans that I can relate too.
Because of Harry Potter, it led me to the path of reading and writing. If I had never found this series, I think I would probably be studying to be a social worker or something I wasn’t very interested at all. Harry Potter has always been a part of my life. It’s the series I go to when I need something to read during a long bus ride or a trip to the beach. It’s the movies I watch when I stay home from being sick. It’s the inspiration I have when I try to write short stories of my own. Sometimes, I think about how much it influenced my life, and I feel like I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it, a Potternerd with too much books, working to get a degree in English Lit, crazy enough to be working at Hogsmeade at Universal Studios, and spending all my free time at Starbucks with my laptop.
Twitter iD: @Ashley19222