Friday, June 12, 2015

End of a journey

A journey that began in late 2001, finally ended a few minutes ago.

Tomorrow my DirecTV account ends (I'm relocating soon) so this week I've been watching all the stuff on my DVR that I hadn't seen yet. Among those were the last three Harry Potter movies.

Since yesterday afternoon I've been watching, as time allowed for it, Part 1 and Part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I just finished it.

And watching Harry stand there, with Ron and Hermione and Ginny, it hit me hard: these were the final moments of something that began what seemed like a lifetime ago, for me personally.

I saw Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone on the day it came out, on November 16th 2001. It was a cold, dreary and raining day. My girlfriend had come to Asheville for the weekend. The next day we were going to a wedding. We saw the movie in a theater not far from my apartment, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

She had no idea that a few feet from where she was sleeping, was a diamond ring.

That was the day I saw the first Harry Potter movie.  And whenever a new Harry Potter movie came out, I saw it on its opening day.

Except for the past number of years.  I hadn't been able to bring myself to watch the films that came after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't know if I could do it. 

Order of the Phoenix was the last Harry Potter movie I saw during what was one of the happiest periods of my life.  I suppose, I just didn't have the heart to want to watch any more after that.

But here I am, this morning. Thirteen and a half years later, this cinematic journey has drawn to a close for me.

Thirteen and a half years ago, I was working at a Best Buy. Until everything in the economy took a hit along with those two towers. I had just begun writing the script for my first movie, with no idea how I was going to make it. The bipolar disorder had yet to erupt with all its fury (I still struggled with depression, but nowhere as bad as it would eventually get).

Most of all, I was in love with someone who I was going to spend the rest of my life serving.

I saw the first Harry Potter movie on the afternoon of November 16th in 2001. I watched the ending of the last Harry Potter movie on the morning of June 12th, 2015.

So much that happened in that little dash between those two dates.

And I don't know what to really think of that.

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