I never really understood the concept until I was standing at Platform 9 and 3/4 in front of The Hogwarts Express feeling like everything was right in the world. 

Being on the set, surrounded by the props from the books and movies that made my entire childhood felt like it was created just for me, so that I could stand there and look around and see everything I have loved for so many years now. I got to pet the Hippogriff in the Forbidden Forest, see the memory jars in Dumbledore’s study and examine the Goblins (very closely) at Gringotts. I know most of us grew up waiting for our Hogwarts letters to arrive but for me, I tried to make my everyday life like it was straight out of one of the books.

Well, not me as much as my mum. I’ve had glasses for as long as I can remember. I had a lazy eye when I was 5 so I’ve been wearing glasses since preschool. I got used to them over the years but may mum told me that I would feel different because I had them so young. My mom, being an artist herself put my thick purple frames on everyones face. I remember having a book with printouts of Hannah Montana, Mickey Mouse and Hermione Granger wearing the same glasses as me. Hermione was everything I wanted to be growing up. Thank god for that because there was no other way I was going to manage giving board exams in science and math if it weren’t for how smart she was, how smart she made me want to be. Mum also sent me to school, telling me that we would get lunch every single day, like the did at the Great Hall. I went into my school’s lunch hall expecting well, the great hall. You can imagine how that went.