30 Letters in 30 Days: Day Nine - Someone I Wish to Meet

Dear JK Rowling,

          First and foremost, I’d like to thank you for every amazing thing you have done in the past, are doing now, and will do in the future.

          You saved literature. I was in a special class for kids who couldn’t read when I was seven. It was humiliating and embarrassing to have to leave the classroom during class to go to another room every day. Everyone knew where I was going. The teacher never said where I was going there, everyone knew.

          Then, my grandmother gave me a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. My life was changed. I devoured the book, as well as the six that followed. I read and reread Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Tales of Beedle the Bard. I became an avid reader of mugglenet.com, as well as a bunch of other fansites.

          I love to read because of your books. I read because you lit a fire in me that no amount of reading is ever able to put out. I know how to articulately argue my opinions because of Hermione. I’m able to add a little comic relief to every situation thanks to Ronald. I firmly believe in standing up for what is right, not what is popular, because of Harry. I believe in love overcoming all evil because of of Albus. I believe that hell hath no fury like the mother of the 16 year old girl you just tried to kill because of Molly.

          You have groomed a generation, hell several generations, of open-minded, thoughtful, caring, strong, readers. Librarians everywhere adore you for bringing children back through those doors at a time when videogames and the internet were taking over the world. Mothers adore you for writing a book about morality and equality at a time when their children were being attacked by an oversexed media on a daily basis. I adore you for crossing gender and age lines at a time when I thought me and my 9 year old cousin had nothing in common.

          You introduced me into a world I could escape to at a moment’s notice. By simply opening a book I was able to escape a world of Muggles and immerse myself in magic and friendship. When no one was there for me Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore’s Army, the Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts…they were all there for me. You and Harry got me through some of the hardest times of my life. I will never be able to express what that means to me, what that means to every Harry Potter fan. All I can say is…will you please write more?

-one of many who stuck with Harry until the end