Harry Potter - The End of an Era

The final installment of the Harry Potter movies will be released this weekend.  I am actually quite excited to see this film and then go back and read the books all over again.  I don't feel the sense of  "I'm so sad it's over" that I felt when I read the last book back in 2007.  (Oh, god, has it been that long...)  Reading the series and awaiting the new books to come out was an amazing experience and I am glad I was able to be a part of it.

I absolutely refused to read the books when they first came out.  I insisted that children's books were for children and the phenomenon was ridiculous.  I was wrong.  It wasn't until my part-time retail job started selling the Harry Potter knick-knacks that I felt I should read at least one.  It was the salesman instinct in me that said I should know what I'm talking about if I'm going to sell it to people.  And that was it.  I loved them.  I talked to my friends about the possible endings, read anything J.K. would tease us with, and enjoyed being part of a community that spanned the globe. 

The movies don't have quite the same intrigue that the books had, but they do signal the end of that era.  It seems like a lot of things are coming to a close on this, my thirtieth year.  And I have to go back to that Tim McGraw song about my next thirty years.