At the age of 12, I moved from South Africa to the UK and things were pretty much very different here…
Understanding the culture and recognising references that people already knew about literally hit me at first introduction, because my name was Rodney (and people in the UK will get this)…
What I wanted was to go to school and be happy but what I really wanted was to fit in and make friends…
To show my parents that I really was happy and settled in the UK, you know being different makes you stick out naturally and when more eyes on you you know could potentially mess up or potentially say the wrong thing…
I’m sure many people can relate to this, but making friends when you’re young isn’t all that easy…
You’re still trying to figure out what you think you like and then trying to form friendships as part of that, it didn’t really happen
overnight for me…
One english lesson one of the books that was introduced was Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone…
You know when you get set a chapter for homework? Well I read much more than that because I was really into it…
I was introduced to a boy that was pulled out of a world that he knew and we just hoping to get on with life without fuss…
A world he was introduced where, everyone had their own cultural understanding, there were new words, there was a new school, there was a new place…
All of it new and he wasn’t really confident and I can certainly see that there was some similarities…
Plus it kinda felt real, you know this whole parallel universe that exists alongside our own, where magic is real…it was very enchanting
After really enjoying the book, because I wasn’t a big reader I kind of forgot about it, which is really sad to think about it now…
But it was only until my neighbour introduced me to the Prisoner of Azkaban (and I know that’s the third book, but bear with) and I started reading that one and I was thinking hang on…
This doesn’t really make sense, so I stopped and found out that the Chamber of Secrets was out…
I immediately stopped found that book, read that and then went back to the Prisoner of Azkaban…
Consumed that in one go, I was like so into it and pretty much I’ve been obsessed ever since…
It was certainly a struggle in school trying to find friends they were into Harry Potter, certainly no one as into it as I was…
It was only until I started looking online that I found communities of Potterheads that were as obsessed as I was…
Fans who would obsessively research articles, scan theories, zoom into photos to try and figure out something…
Fans that would replicate props and clothing, just to have a little piece of the wizarding world…these were my type of people…
It’s because of these communities that I have formed some amazing
friendships with some incredibly talented people…
and I can honestly say that that is probably the real magic of the wizarding world… well it certainly is for me…
I can proudly say that I am obsessed with the wizarding world and now that I do something daily with social media and weekly with YouTube, you’d think you’d get like burn out…
I can honestly say that I am even more obsessed!
Discovering it so young, I’ve been obsessed with something for such a substantial portion of my life…
And of course I’ve been asked jokingly and maybe even sometimes seriously like you know – “when are you gonna grow up?”…
but what I hear is, “after all this time?”…
and my answer is – “always”
Thank you very much for taking time to read this, I really hope you’ve enjoyed learning about my Harry Potter story…
I’d love to know how did you discover Harry Potter? Please leave me a comment below…
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