In Which I Got Hooked on Harry Potter

The first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, came out June 30th, 1997.

Today, fourteen years ago, the lives of many changed.

It wasn't until December 25, 2000 that my life changed, as many before mine did.
I was 5 at the time, and it was Christmas.

My brother is five years older than me, and as a kid, I was jealous of him all the time. Whether it was because I felt my parents always showered love and gifts on him, that I never got, or just because he seemed "cooler" than me (which seemed quite unfair at the time). So when my brother began reading the Harry Potter series for school, reading them became the bane of my existence. I begged and begged my parents for a large part of the year to let me read the books. I wanted to be just like him, show him that  I could read them too, that I was old enough to handle it. My brother took every opportunity to rub it in my face that he got to read them because he was old enough, mature enough, cool enough.

Finally, my parents relented and on Christmas, I received a paper back version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I was ecstatic and I spent all day and all night reading as much of it as I could, after all, who needs food when you have magic?
Laying on my parent's bed and just reading. I was happy and excited and jumping for joy as I read all about  Harry, Ron, and Hermione's first adventure together... that is until I got to the part where Voldemort came into the story. The little illustrations that precede each chapter I had imprinted to memory. Every single one of them. But boy-oh-boy did the one of Voldy scare the bejeesus out of mini-Yugina.
I cried that night after getting to that chapter, afraid to go to bed, scared that Voldy might hurt me as he hurt Harry, Quirrel, Neville's parents, and everyone else. It took me a week, before I was able to finish reading the book due to my fears of the Dark Lord. When I finally finished the book, the nightmares went away, I came to respect Dumbledore as I had never respected before, and I've loved Harry ever since.

I love Harry for saving me from Voldemort, just as he saved the wizard world.