I'm baaaaaaack!!!!!

image via: mysterypeople.wordpress.com

I graduated from grad school about three weeks ago and have been spending my time doing what I've wanted to do for the past two years: spend all my free time looking at youtube videos, mostly of famous people/authors/spiritual leaders/oprah. I've found some real gems, but I am most pleased with my J.K. Rowling finds. The woman is a genius people! Like, one of the smartest and most creative women ever. I still have yet to finish the Potter series (I've been in the college setting for 6 years, guys) but already know that I'm going to love the way she handles the end. Actually, I love the way she has handled everything in her life. "A year in the life" is probs my favorite youtube discovery and I think I've watched it about three times. It is sort of long, so here are my fave parts:

--when she talks about her family: jo (that's her real name) didn't come from the best family life. She also got married and had a baby in her early 20's, followed by a divorce. Poverty followed her into the first few years of being a single parent. As twisted as this is, I love that she has this background because at my core, I am a social worker and love a good "coming from nothing" story.

--when they show jo in her hotel room writing the final pages of the series: besides being a social worker, writing is the other piece of my soul. I love it/need to do it in order to be a somewhat happy person. When she finishes, she smiles in a way that makes me feel bad for her--for the past 17 years she has had these characters to turn to, and then it all ended with a quick punch of the "period (.)" key. Seems a little anti-climactic. I can't imagine ever writing something for that long, let alone something that made me one of the richest people in the world. Despite the glitz and glam of the monstrosity that is Harry Potter, it still all goes back to a woman in her hotel room, drinking coffee, and worrying the material might be "rubbish."

--7,000 copies a minute: that's how many HP books were sold per minute the first day the last book came out. That is A TON of Harrys! I get goosebumps thinking about the magnitude of the phenomenon Harry Potter has become. Kids got so excited when the latest book would come out and I think it's great that there were parties held just for a book...A BOOK! One woman with one idea wrote 7 books and now, millions of people around the WORLD read more just because HP exists. If that's not a cultural phenomenon, then I dunno what is.

Watch:  A Year In The Life (TV, 2007)