Once again, I find myself in a state of perpetually having just watched the newest Harry Potter film . One of the perks of my job is making the most of the big screen format of a movie through free tickets and repeated viewings. Though every once in a while we get lucky (Toy Story and Toy Story 2), no one really knows whether or not we'll ever have a chance to see our favorite movies on a big screen after it's initial release - kind of scary when you think about it. Of course when movies like Harry Potter or other such blockbusters come out, I make it a point to spend every lunch break (and, in the case of some movies, every night after work) watching these films so that I get my proper fill of them in all of their big-screen glory.
Harry Potter is kind of an interesting case; with a book/film series that has spanned collectively almost two decades, it's not uncommon to hear people say that they've grown up with Harry over the years. Perhaps this is why he's so easy to relate to - as he has grown older and he has matured, so have the readers of the series. For me, I started on the series a little older than most people, not getting into it until the first film was released, at which point I was about 15 and a sophomore in high school. Still, when I look back over the years, I am amazed at the journey I've experienced, which has at times been no less epic that Harry's.
Sorcerers Stone - December of 2001
I am a sophomore in high school, and I'm being dragged to the theatre by Lona, who I am dating, to see what the big deal is with this new Harry Potter thing.
The year leading up to this so far has been eventful; probably the most eventful in my life at that point. The summer of 2001 saw the beginnings of my Disneyland obsession as Disney's California Adventure opened to the public - a park I had been tracking the construction of for two years prior. At the end of each day of helping my dad repaint our new house, I logged on to my new found Disneyland insider blog sites every night to read the latest on how DCA was doing. As I did that, I also logged into AIM every night with crossed fingers that Nari would be online - the girl who would eventually become my first girlfriend, after an awkwardish 4th of July party at her parents' house. Regardless, I balance trying to deal with the awkwardness of my first relationship along with trying to deal with fitting in and adapting at Band Camp, which was to become my life for the rest of my high school career.
Three weeks into the school year, the World Trade Center is demolished, and all the tough, scary upperclassmen in my advanced physics class have tears running down their faces as we watch the destruction on TV, out of fear of potentially being drafted into a war which seemed inevitable at the time.. I am literally seeing these kids grow up before my eyes. The following day, my two month relationship with Nari ends. The entire world feels like it's collapsing.
But now it's November, and after a long season of endless rehearsals, developing a love for classic rock, and getting more physical activity than I'd ever known in my life, I'm now dating someone much cooler and we're seeing Harry Potter at Edwards San Marcos 18. Again, I'm reluctant about it, but her being an avid fan of the book series and having just seen the midnight show a few days prior, she swears up and down that this is something I need to get into. I agree because, well, that's what you're supposed to do when you have a girlfriend, right?
A few days later, I am in my room flipping out about why I have to wait another year for the second Harry Potter movie to find out what happens next to Harry. Then I realize, "oh yeah, books! duh!" I can't remember the last time I'd read for purely enjoyment alone.
Chamber of Secrets - November of 2002
I've been with Lona for a year now and together we've gone through a lot of the typical high school experience. I make some solid friends in band, Ted still being my best buddy since elementary school. Lona and I are having a great time, and though she is away for most of the summer, I feel special as she sends me post cards and letters from out of town as she vacations with her family; never have I received real letters in the mail before. In the meantime, I accidentally discover Homestar Runner through one of my theme park blogs - it would only be a few months until Trogdor is a household name.
But as the new Junior year would progress, stress levels would increase all around. Our new band field show, set to the music of Styx, is simply not as cool as the Kansas show the year before and is not getting us the trophies we all desire. Practices are long and instructors are pissed off. Our band doesn't make finals in the Vegas competition (where Lona and I had first bonded the year before.) A depressed, probably attention seeking boy attempts to throw himself out of a school bus on the freeway on the way home from a band tournament. Classes get harder and my grades slip. Slowly and barely noticeably, my relationship with Lona begins to show cracks. But still, we're chugging along, and seeing Chamber of Secrets. At the time, it's probably my most highest anticipated film to date, but years later I will look back on that film and laugh at it. Why the round of applause for Hagrid at the end?
A few weeks later, we would all take part in the prestigious Tournament of Roses parade that we'd been preparing for all year. Despite the excitement of the week in LA going to cool and important places, and being on television many times over, Lona and I would find ourselves snippy with each other for most of the trip.
Prisoner of Azkaban - May of 2004
It's been a year and a half since Chamber and a lot has changed. Lona and I have split, and try to remain friends despite my devastation. I spend the summer preparing to become a student leader in band, mostly hanging out with my baritone buddies. I learn to drive while listening to Smash Mouth's Get the Picture album (an album I'm sure that only maybe 9 other people on the planet own.) I first begin to see my parents' marriage falling apart before my eyes during a family trip to Vegas, yet I refuse to believe it's happening. My senior year is tainted by this, while at the same time I'm also growing closer to a girl named Laura, and hanging out with her, her twin sister, and an RBV alumnus who is trying to date her (unbeknownst to me.) My life is a constant alternation of double dates with the three, and temper tantrums at home. I am failing classes and breaking furniture in a rage, though the presence of Laura is doing a lot to keep me from completely losing it.
So this is weird - I'm in a relationship with a girl much quieter and more low key, but I'm happy at least. I've just graduated high school and couldn't be more glad to be rid of it, even though I had a killer experience in band. And we're going to see the third Harry Potter movie, which has an oddly different feel than the two prior. Also, this would be the only Potter film I'd see at the new Krikorian theater in Vista - though this theater is much nicer and much closer to home, I have no idea that I would be getting my movies for free at San Marcos only a few months later. Regardless, I'm with Laura, and after an explosive year of drama at home, I've now settled into a kind of calm, almost zen. This is now the beginning of another journey.
Goblet of Fire - November of 2005
Another year and a half. Aside from Laura and a few friends, there are few remaining traces from my high school life that was such a big part of me for many years. I'm going to Miracosta, not sure what I'm going to do from there, and I've been working at Regal for about a year. My closest friends pretty much now all consist of Regal employees: Ben, Kyle, Corinna, another Laura, and, oddly enough, Ryan (Lona's older brother). By this time there's no longer any hard feelings between Lona and I, and we've managed to become good friends. I keep in contact with her while she's at college in Iowa; she thinks it's really strange that I'm good friends with her brother, even though I didn't ever say more than "hello" to him during the year and a half that we had dated. Ted has also gone away to school, and Ben is now my closest friend for the time being. Together, along with the rest of the Regal crew, we get into crazy shenanigans as I spend more and more time away from my now permanently broken home. We have a blast and I am loving my post high school life.
And I'm still with Laura. It's a bit odd - she's still in high school, while my world is no longer about high school band and I continue to cultivate my own social life. She kind of fits in with my group of friends okay, but stays clear for the most part. I try hard to balance my new friends with Laura and the remnants of my high school life. Still, the time since the last potter film has been pretty low key drama-wise. And this Potter movie looks pretty cool, though I'm not a huge fan of the book. Also, it's the first I see for free multiple times, and the first for which I work a midnight showing. I love having power over midnight show crowds. I watch the midnight show as Voldemort rises from the cauldron, and then spend the next hour after the movie geeking out with fellow regal employee James about horcruxes.
This would be the beginning of what would be known as the "Movie Nights" era.
Order of the Phoenix - July of 2007
The movie nights crew, along with Laura and a few more who have joined the circle, are all going to watch this newest film in 3D IMAX. This would be the first of three or four visits, and all part of a summer that is largely a recovery vehicle after another tumultuous year. We're all just trying to get over the events of a few months prior - Corinna, after having been forced to move out of her parents house and roommate with Ben for a few months, has voluntarily overdosed on sleeping pills, and we're all now spending the summer trying to keep our circle of friends together and undergo the healing process after losing someone we've grown to love so much over the last few years. Many of us spend the summer camping in the Davis family living room; as Corinna had been dating Ryan at the time of her death, and no one really wants to be alone anymore, it seems logical we should overtake his house. I have one of my first "how did I get here?" moments, as I connect my memories of being with Lona and visiting this house in high school with being in this house now in a completely different light, now friends with her older brother and mourning a girl I didn't even know I'd meet back when I was dating Lona.
The summer is fun at least and is a good distraction. The week after that first viewing of Potter, most of would cram into an apartment and read the newly released 7th Potter book together for nearly 30 hours. Wow... the books are done, the series over. Is this a concept I could have even tried to grasp back in that theater with Lona begrudgingly watching Sorcerers Stone six years prior? Could I, back in high school, have even tried to imagine where I'd be or who I'd be with when the last book was released? These mind bending thoughts aside, I proceed to view Order of the Phoenix literally every day after work. It would easily be my most watched Potter film.
I don't know it at the time, but the "Movie Nights" era is about to come to an end.
Half Blood Prince - present day
I look back between each film and see how much everything has changed between each one, and still am surprised by how much can happen in just year or two. I'm sitting upstairs at Edwards San Marcos 18 - the place I was introduced to Harry Potter so many years ago. In fact, a few feet away from me, I can see a print of Half Blood Prince unwinding on a projector platter. As I type this, I see behind this notepad file (where I write all my blogs) the images of people on my laptop's wallpaper: Arielle, Kristine, Mucio, Claudina, Krista, Jason, Sarah, Lorenzo. A shot taken from my improv theatre club. Most of these people I've met through being in a play at CSUSM, where I'm now attending school. Wait, who are these people? And a play, what? I act now? That all came out of left field. And, also, I'm now the mysterious hand in charge of getting people their Harry Potter fix at Edwards.
I broke up with Laura after over four years. Laura is no longer around. Ben, same thing. Now they are dating - I was once told that a good ending should be a surprising inevitability, and I guess in that sense the ending was fitting. The slate has pretty much been wiped clean, and with it, I've managed to lose all the weight I had put on since high school and also managed to construct a new social life from CSUSM. New friends, new activities, new everything. Of all the Harry Potter periods, this one probably saw the most random change, and I'm still trying to comprehend it. If you're reading this, you're a part of it all.
And T-Minus one year until Deathly Hallows.
Maybe my story isn't quite as epic as Harry's, but I like to stop and wonder - how would Harry have reacted in Sorcerer's Stone if someone had told him that he would one day be saving the world? Or that little girl on the platform would be his future wife? Or his friends Ron and Hermione, who hate each other, would one day fall in love? Or that half the people he would meet in the next few years would be dead not long after?
Trying to imagine being a sophomore in high school and being told everything I know now is mind bending. Too much for a person to handle.
I think it's safe to say that I have definitely grown up with Harry Potter. Perhaps this is the appeal - everyone has their own story. Anyone can think back to where they were when they first read X book or saw X movie and see how much things have changed. If you are reading this right now, I invite you to do the same. Realize how fragile time is, and how funny the universe works. All I know is that, good or bad, I can't wait to see how the story plays out between now and the next movie.
