Thank you, JK Rowling

Pardon any and all ramblings in this post. I'm going on 2 hours of sleep and no caffeine.

I saw the final installment of Harry Potter last night and thus have concluded a 13-year chapter of my life. Sounds dramatic? Well, it kind of is. How many things have you loved consistently, looked forward to consistently, for 13 years? Now, I'm still young. 13 years is over half of my life. That's a whole lot of time for me.

So I'd like to take this post to thank the woman who made it all possible. JK Rowling.

Thank you, JK Rowling, for creating characters that turned into friends that I was fortunate enough to grow up with.

Thank you, JK Rowling, for developing this imaginative, unique, creative world that allowed my imagination to run free as I pictured (and then later watched in the movies) witches and wizards and goblins and unicorns and banshees.

Thank you, JK Rowling, for introducing a story that was so engaging it got some of the most resistant readers to read 400+ page books and then ask for more.

Thank you, JK Rowling, for reminding us that the ends do not always justify the means. That good will triumph over eve. That no matter how dark it might look at one moment, something wonderful could happen the next.

Thank you, JK Rowling, for showing us the power of friendship and love and reminding us that those are the most important things in the world. Power, money, prestige, grades, none of that matters if you cannot love and be loved in return.

Thank you, JK Rowling, for giving us someone to relate to. Whether someone is the jock (Harry), the brains (Hermoine), the loser (Neville), even the bully (Malfoy), everyone has a chance to be a hero, even in the smallest way.

And thank you, JK Rowling, for the countless moments that I couldn't even put into words. The moments where I cried with the characters, laughed with them, cheered for them, even for the moments that I could not stand them (hello book 6 anyone?). Thank you.

Some people might say it's stupid. It's just a story. It's just something out of the mind of one woman who made billions of dollars off of it. Yeah, maybe, but if you look around this past week: in newspapers, magazines, on television, you'll see it. You'll see the people whose lives were forever changed by the orphaned boy wizard who overcame impossible odds to save the wizarding world from evil. Maybe they weren't changed in a big way, but they were changed.

So thank you for the past 13 years, JK Rowling.

Mischief Managed