Last night I attended the midnight showing of the final installment of the epic Harry Potter movie series. It was bittersweet because Harry and I literally grew up together, right down to our late July birthdays, and now we're both moving on to new things.
I was introduced to the series when my friends banded together to give me books 1 and 2 for my tenth birthday. This lucky happenstance means that the first time I read each book I was nearly the same age as Harry. (It was kind of J.K. Rowling to wait a little bit between each of the later books so that I was mature enough for them and so that I could catch up with Harry in age as the later books were published). From the first book, I was hooked. From then on my family and I had the books pre-ordered online and ready to be delivered to my home the day they were released. I first read each one in a marathon-style blur within days of their release.
In 2001, when the first movie came out, I quickly learned that Daniel Radcliffe is exactly two days younger than me. As each book and movie became more mature and complicated, I likewise grew older and more mature. The seventh book came out on my 18th birthday. Pretty cool!
It therefore seems appropriate that the final movie in the series should come out shortly after I finish my final year of college. Harry and I have now both finished our undergraduate studies and are moving on to new phases in our lives. It is a time of change and transition. A liminal phase, my anthropology friends would say.
Liminal stages are exciting because they come before something new, but they are also bittersweet since they come after the end of something else. The end of anything, be it college, the Harry Potter movies or relationships, is hard. Change is hard. It's good for us I suppose and it seems to be the staple of the 20-something years from what I can tell so far, but it is none-the-less challenging.
There is a scene in the new movie (WHOA! SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read the book or seen the movie yet, tread with caution!) where Neville proclaims to the crowd that even if Harry has died, he isn't really gone. He goes on in their hearts because he means so much to them. This is a comforting thing to hear during this change-filled, liminal phase of my life right now. While some relationships have ended, I'm an alumnus instead of a college student and Harry Potter is a grown up giving his children unbelievably cheesy names, all these previous phases are still near and dear to my heart.
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