The End of an Era…

This week, on July 15, 2011, is the end of an era.  I am talking about the eighth and final Harry Potter film.  I know that I am only one of millions who has enjoyed the books and the films, but I just feel the need to explain why I am more than a little wistful about the release of the final film.

The first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was released in 2001.  This is the also the year I got married, and we moved out on our own.  When we saw the film, neither of us had read the books but we were so entertained and enthralled by the film that I ran out to Barnes and Noble the very next day and bought all four books that were out at the time.  We devoured the books and waited anxiously for the next movie.  The movie and the books, were a bonding experience for my husband and I.  While my husband loooooves movies, he had never really been much of a reader.  Now, I am a bookworm from way back.  I always wanted to discuss books with him and when we started reading the Harry Potter books, we had a series of books we both loved.  Every year we waited for the next movie to come out and made sure we saw it on opening day together. 

The first time we did not see a Harry Potter movie together was in 2009.  It was Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince.  My husband, who is in the Coast Guard, was away at school for five months.  At the time he had been gone three weeks and I missed him terribly, especially since the day before going to the movie I had found out I was pregnant!  I remember sitting in the dark theater and thinking that I couldn’t wait to share the books and movies with my child someday…and regretting the large soda I had sucked down! 

The only HP movie I didn’t see in the theater was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and that is because I was busy being a new mom.  However, I will be sitting in the theater on Friday, watching the final film, in a vastly different place than I was in while watching the first film both geographically and in my life. 

These movies will always have a special place in my heart because they will remind me of our journey through our first ten years of marriage and starting our family.  Of course, they are also just really good movies!

        

Until next time…

Paulene