I watched the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, when I was maybe 8 or 9, I can’t remember. I did not like it at all. I felt it was too much to keep up with and just boring. (I remember thinking the big plot twist was that Snape was actually the centaur and he was the epitome of good that would kill Voldemort. Boy, was I wrong.) Having not enjoyed the first movie, I gave up on Harry Potter, not caring when people talked about it and having no desire to watch any of the other movies or waste my time reading the books.

Then on a 10th grade field trip to Washington D.C., I saw the girl I had liked my enitre high school career reading the 7th book. I decided then that I should read the books, and that summer that is exactly what I did. I read all the books in about a month, and since then have reread them all multiple times and seen all the movies. I even wrote a Thesis about Harry Potter. I fell hard for the loveable little wizard.

And now, in approximately 5 hours, it all will end.

I felt silly feeling this emotional about a simple ending to a saga. I mean, it’s just a movie, right? But I realized it’s not just that my favorite story is officially ending, it’s that I’m realizing I have to grow up, timess have to change, and stories have to end. And I believe that is what many people my age are feeling right now. My generation grew up with these stories. They loved them from their first publish in 1997 and now they are going to see their beloved characters for the last time.

Just as Harry, Ron, and Hermione did, the kids who followed thier awkward adolescent stages grew up. We now have to realize that everything has to end. People have to grow up. Things must change. It is a way of life. Without change, we can have no progress. But alot of us are afraid of change. We don’t want our characters to be done, because then we are forced out of our comfort zone and into a strange new territory where Harry Potter isn’t a reality. We don’t want to face change because we are scared of the unknown.

So I want to say thank you Harry Potter. I want to thank you for all the enjoyment, all the lessons, and all the fun. But now it is time for us to go our seperate ways. It’s time to change and grow. Its time to accept and embrace the unknown and hope it is as kind to me as you were.