Who wants to play favorites?

Surprisingly enough, I have a pretty hard time picking a "favorite" character from Harry Potter. With many books/TV shows/movies there comes a point where I am only continuing for that ONE character that I absolutely love, but that never really happened with Harry Potter. That's the problem with something that awesome - it's ALL good!

That said, I'd like to take today to talk about the two characters that were big role-models for me growing up. I read the first Harry Potter book all the way back in 4th grade when it wasn't even HARRY POTTER yet - I had no clue there was even going to be a sequel until the next year! I had already been labeled somewhat of a nerd, and I didn't have the easiest time of making friends - most of us are at least a little introverted, you know how it is.

And then I read this book called Harry Potter, and one of the main characters was not only a girl but nerdy like me! She had a similar attitude and everything - need to solve a problem? Go to the library! Looking back, I would say that reading about Hermione made me feel better about being a nerd. After all everybody loved Harry Potter, and Harry Potter thought she was cool, right?

Later, when Ginny was introduced as a fully fleshed out character I also found her a kind of role model. She isn't quite the smart girl like Hermione, but she *does* have street smarts and a "no-bulls**t" kind of attitude that I loved. She stood up for herself and for those she loved. I was pretty impressed, and I wanted to be more like her.

So maybe they're not my favorites, because that would mean that I didn't love Dumbledore, or Ron, or Sirius, or Mrs. Weasley or anyone else as much. But I would say that they probably had the biggest influence on my life.

Edit: It occurs to me that I will probably be MIA next week, as I'll be busy trying to fit my entire life into a van. I apologize, and I'll see you in a few weeks :-)