Dear J.K. Rowling,

When I was in kindergarten, I begged my mom to let me read the Harry Potter series, I had friends who were reading it and they had told me about it and I was very excited to read it. My mom told me when I reached a 5th grade reading level, I could read it. Well, I reached 5th grade reading level in the first grade. So on a Thursday before a four day weekend my first grade year, I borrowed Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone from a classmate. That four day weekend, did nothing but read. In those four days, I got lost in Harry's world. Thus started my lifelong love of Harry Potter.

My entire childhood was spent running around with toy wands and begging my grandma to make me an Invisibility Cloak. I always wanted to know what house I was in and I saw every movie. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the first PG-13 movie I saw in theaters. I spent years reading the books and living in Harry's world. Finally, 2007, you released the last book in the series. I spent a whole week reading the book. The day I finished it, I sat on my grandma's couch for eight hours straight, losing myself in the story. When I finally got to the epilogue, I let out a sigh of relief, and ran to my grandma's upstairs bedroom, and cried for an hour straight, rereading my favorite parts of the book.

J.K., you made my childhood magical, literally. I wrote down every spell used in the stories. I drew symbols from the story all over my arms and hands. I was always speaking in a British accent and trying to be like Hermione.

You made my childhood magical, and gave me a place to escape when things got bad. When I was in 6th grade, my parents decided we would move across the country from my home states of California to a small town in Indiana. It shook my world, and I was desperately searching for somewhere to escape. I reread the Harry Potter books during the move, and they brought me peace. My love for the series kept me sane through my middle school years, and when I reached high school, my friends all knew me as the one who was a huge Potterhead.

J.K., thank you for my childhood. Thank you for providing me with the silver lining in every bad situation because I had the books to turn to. Thank you for giving me an escape and for giving me a story that will last a lifetime. Even at 19, I still obsess over the world you created and I still use it to escape the new stressors college has given me.

J.K. Rowling, thank you for giving me a home at Hogwarts with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Sincerely,

A Harry Potter kid, who has now grown up