Generation HP: Why growing up with Harry Potter means more than you think

I, like a lot of people my age, grew up with Harry Potter. Harry was 11 when I was 11, at home sick reading “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone” for the first time. The movies used to always come out in November, the same weekend as my birthday. And when Harry would have been commencing from Hogwarts, I had just graduated from high school (I didn’t have to take a year off to destroy Horcruxes like he did).

My fascination began with the wands, the magical creatures and the castle. I remember feeling real disappointment when my Hogwarts letter didn’t arrive. The wizarding world was far more exciting than what I thought was my mundane life. There was danger, magic, adventure and heroics.

You may laugh to know that I have gone to every midnight film premiere and a couple book premieres, and yes, that I dress up. That the one graduation gift that made me tear up was a Harry Potter cookbook. But the wands and robes are really just the surface of why the series has become deeply personal to me, and the rest of my generation.

As we matured, we began to have bigger questions in life and face bigger problems. We needed more complicated material, and J.K. Rowling provided. Harry struggled with his identity, with his dark side and his similarities to Voldemort. He dealt with disappointment in his mentor, Dumbledore, and surprisingly saw good in his enemies. As we grew up, so did Harry, and our worlds became more complex, less black and white.

Harry is far from perfect – he is a rule breaker, hot headed and quick to react. He isn’t the smartest, nor the most physically strong character in the book, but he is the most selfless. Rowling has created a world where the most powerful magic lies not in the violent or arrogant, but in people like Harry. Our hero needs a little help along the way, though – when he first finds out about the Deathly Hallows, he becomes obsessed with finding them for his personal ends. With his friends to keep him in check, (spoiler alert) he ends up wielding them only when he has humbly accepted his fate, willing to lay down his life to save the wizarding world. Harry is not tempted by the lure of the Hallows’ power; he is able to master his weaknesses, and them.

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The world of Hogwarts is a world where the spirit behind one’s actions matter. The magic is more than hat tricks, it is much deeper, almost spiritual. Like the force in Star Wars, it influences and changes things. Entering a world like that challenges us to believe that what’s inside does matter, to hold ourselves to higher standards. The world of Hogwarts is a place where hope prevails in the most dire circumstances, where a teenage boy can find the strength to do what’s right, and anything is possible, from riding a dragon to marrying your true love.

The world of Harry Potter may not be real, but like a lot of stories, it is real in our heads. As one wise wizard once told Harry, “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?” Eventually, we Harry Potter fans will have to grow up – not too much, I hope, but I think what will really stay with us goes way beyond centaurs and hippogriffs, potions and spells.

Jill Beathard is an intern at the Vail Daily. Email comments about this story to jbeathard@vaildaily.com.