It was a whopping 94 degrees outside, nothing unusual for Florida. The sun heavily beat down, sweat trickling down my neck. It was so humid outside I felt like the air was almost drinkable. But the heat isn’t what I remember most about those two days in Orlando. I remember the anticipation and the magic.

Shortly after 9am, Universal Studios opened their park for early admission, and people flooded the wide sidewalk, each person walking faster than the next to get to the final destination. Of course, my sister and father ran up ahead with the crowd while I stayed back with my mom. But that didn’t mean we were any less excited than everyone else. My heart was beating faster, both from running and the excitement that was pulsing in my veins. We walked for what seemed like forever until we turned a corner. And then there it was: Hogsmeade.

My mom clutched my arm, gasped, and then let out a couple of tears because she was so happy to finally be in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It seemed so surreal. A place that I had grown up watching on the big screen and dreamed about visiting was right in front of me. I was so overwhelmed by all the details that I couldn’t even walk straight without running into somebody. But my parents shooed us all in the direction of the main attraction: Hogwarts. And the fact that there was a ride in the castle made it all the better.

Waiting in a long line under blistering heat doesn’t sound like the ideal day spent to me, but just that once, it was. So many details went into crafting the place into the perfection that it is, which is why standing in line was so bearable. We slithered our way all over the castle: through the greenhouse where mandrakes squealed in their pots, into a classroom where a hologram of Ron, Harry, and Hermione made snow fall from the ceiling, past the portrait of The Fat Lady singing, through a hallway of paintings that moved and talked to you, through the Gryffindor common rooms, and then finally to the point where we were a matter of feet away from boarding.

And the ride itself had everything a Harry Potter nerd could’ve hoped for. We flew around the Quidditch field, went face to face with dementors, spiders, the basilisk, and a dragon. The smile on my face after the ride ended was one I could not get rid of. And that was just the beginning of the adventure.

There was a whole other park to see, so we hopped on The Hogwarts Express and ventured off. After the train ride, I maneuvered around the crowd until I came to brick wall. I moved around it and there I was, in the flesh, standing right in the middle of Diagon Alley. A giant dragon was perched atop Gringotts Bank and spewed flames. Kids were running in and out of the candy shop that sold chocolate frogs and fizzing whizbees. I walked past window shops that sold Hermione’s Yule Ball dress and books by the infamous Gilderoy Lockhart. Heck, even a recording of Moaning Myrtle played in the bathrooms.

Even though I was only there for two days, a lifetime of wishes came true. I got to try butterbeer and have lunch at The Leaky Cauldron. I even wandered into Ollivander’s to look at the different wands. Sure, I might seem like a total nerd, but it was one of the greatest moments of my life. Just being in the park, I could tell how much something that started out on the back of a napkin (props to J.K. Rowling) could mean so much to so many people around the world. The amount of detail that went into this adventure is mind blowing. The souvenirs of a cauldron-shaped mug and some merch with my house on it (shout to all my fellow slytherins) can not fathom the pure joy that I felt in the two days I was there. Despite all the wizardry and special effects, there is nothing more magical than living out a childhood dream.