The last death-knell of childhood.

Kind of a dramatic title, eh?

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight.  (In the cheap seats, on film, and not in 3D, I might add.)  Toward the magnificently climactic ending, it struck me just how much of my adolescence was spent with that series.

I remember the first time I saw a Harry Potter book.  I had just turned twelve.  We had just moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan from Hackettstown, New Jersey.  We were in the Borders downtown (the one that just closed...) and I saw "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Now, I'm a big nerd.  It was worse when I was a kid.  Anything with wizards or sorcerers or spells or anything had to be awesome, so I asked for it for Christmas.  From the opening page, I was hooked.  I identified with the feeling of being an outsider.  I, like Harry, longed to be special, to be different.  Like so many young nerds, I was just waiting for the day that my X-gene became active or some blue aliens from a distant planet made me an intergalactic cop.  A half-giant riding a motorcycle telling me I was a wizard sounded just as good. 

I quickly read all three of the books of the time, struggling with how to pronounce Hermione, hating Draco Malfoy, and getting inspired by the themes of courage, self-sacrifice, and dependence on a close circle of friends.  As I grew up, so too, did Harry Potter.  The decidedly darker turn of Order of the Phoenix resonated with my deeper adolescent desire to struggle against something oppressive and evil.  The higher stakes only increased the emotional engagement that I had with the characters.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I spent most of the last third of Deathly Hallows with a lump in my throat.  I had spent almost ten years with these characters.  And now, as the last Harry Potter movie has been released, it's been twelve years.  So, in many ways, watching those last credits roll to the top of the screen was like watching the last bit of my adolescence and childhood go away.  Sure, there will always be a new Zelda release to bring me back.  I'll stay involved in youth ministry and always have ridiculous fun with middle school boys.  But Harry Potter will remain a mainstay of my memories of growing up.