Ok I know I have already done a Harry Potter blog post. But today (June 26, 2017, if this post marks as a day later LIKE USUAL THANKS WP) is the 20th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. And even if it weren’t, I would have written about this series again, because it damn well deserves it.

Harry Potter and JK Rowling taught a little girl who was a bit awkward and was ashamed of being nerdy that awkward kids who didn’t excel at everything and didn’t have many friends could still be amazing. That series is fucking amazing. It has changed and saved so many people.

So thanks, Ms. Rowling, for showing me that writers can change the world. Thanks, Harry, for being the most wonderfully normal hero I could have asked for. Thanks, Ron, for teaching me that family is important whether you’re related or not. Thanks, especially, to Hermione, who kept learning and talking and reading and questioning when no one else cared or listened anymore, because she cared.

Harry Potter isn’t perfect. That would be impossible. But its imperfections have given voice to so many issues, and its strengths have built the childhoods of a generation. So whatever your ships, your headcanons, your causes, let’s all take a step back, raise our glasses; To Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.