When I was a teenager I wasn’t in a very good place. One of my brothers had died and I was lost and had no direction in my life. I was lonely and depressed and felt so isolated from everyone around me because no one understood how I felt. I was just left to get on with my life and expected to do it quietly.
I had never been one for reading as I found it difficult and boring, but this all changed one night when I decided to pick up a book. It changed my life and it saved my life.
The moment I read the first page I was already hooked and couldn’t put it down. I was desperate to know what was going to happen next and felt a sense of nervousness for the characters. It was weird as I had never connected with a book or its characters before in my life. I could see a part of myself in each of the three main characters which allowed me to feel empathy, sympathy and compassion for them. I laughter and cried with, and for these characters and felt that I finally felt that there were people around me when I needed them most.
After I finished the first book I scrambled to buy the second and third. As the characters started to grow throughout the series, so did I. People around me couldn’t seem to understand why I was so obsessed with this particular series and I struggled to explain why as I thought they’d make fun of me. The truth was that whenever I was upset, whenever I needed guidance and whenever I needed to escape from reality, these books and their characters were there for me.
As the series progressed and the characters grew, so did I. I learnt so much about friendships, pain, loss, solidarity and unity I felt that I could take on the world. Any time I was feeling so low I didn’t know where to turn, the books were always there. Each turn of the page was like an injection of strength into my body.
I am not exaggerating when I say that these books saved my life. It changed my life too! After reading the series I was able to put life into perspective and found my exactly what, and who were important in my life. I’ve read this series over and over again and watched the films a million times (a slight exaggeration there, but not too much of one lol) and I never get tired or bored. I’m still learning from them too. Each time I pick up any one of the books in this series I’m able to take more and more from them!
The reason I’m sharing this with you is because it’s Harry Potter Book Night this evening and I feel it’s my own way of showing my gratitude to Ron, Harry, Hermione, but mostly to Jo for writing this wonderfully amazing series.
These books will ALWAYS be my saviour, my one true escape. These books really did save my life.
Tears & Fears 