User Profile

I joined Live Journal to chat with other HP fans. I am a late comer to the fandom, but avid nonetheless. To get to when I became a fan I need to go back a few years.
*pensieve pulled out and contents stirred*
I showed horses for several years, mostly regionally on the AQHA circuit. A time came when I had to make a decision to leave the horses behind for awhile. Long story.
While involved with horses I didn't have the time, energy, or money to do much to my house. This was my major frustration while showing. I would come home from a week of horse show dirt to a house that wasn't really mine. It was still decorated as it was when I bought it and I was growing to loathe it.
I need a project. Always. With no horse to focus on I turned to my home. I picked out a new kitchen and proceeded to take out counters, then moved on to wallpaper and carpet- throughout the entire house. I figured if I was going to do it I may as well get it all over with, let the workers invade, then it would be done. Yuck. It took almost a year for the dust to settle.
While I was scrapping wallpaper I popped the HP and the SS audio CDs in. I had listened to them on the way to a show in Virginia, enjoyed the story, but had not felt the need to hear more. That was a couple of years earlier so I decided to listen again. I enjoyed the story and decided to get the next- then the next. By the time I finished HBP my destruction duties were done, the kitchen was in, the walls in the entire house had been painted, and the wood floors had just been refinished. Jim Dale and I bonded. I have since been through the entire series several more times.
While that explains why I listened to and enjoyed Harry's story, it doesn't explain my fan status. I love that the story is about how important our choices truly are.
I detest labels, but they are so handy. I am an assistant prosecuting attorney. It is what I do, not who I am. I have no rich relatives so must work to keep the dogs in kibbles and finance my choices. I try to remember to play the lottery occassionally, but until my numbers come in, I work. Since I must work, my job is wonderful. It is the best job ever. I specialize in the prosecution of juvenile delinquents. It is with the youth we have the best chance of changing behavior, which is one of the reasons I like my job.
I chose my career after the little sister of a classmate was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. She was twelve and I had just graduated high school. I believe we all have the right to go about our business without fear. I don't care what consenting adults choose to do behind closed doors. Obviously some of that activity (drug usage, for example) is illegal and if someone gets caught they get prosecuted. But my reason for doing what I do is that I hate that we live behind locked doors. I hate that we are confined because the occassional idiot is out there.
I have been threatened, etc. It is part of the job. As a female dealing with police officers, etc., you have to keep a good sense of humor and not take things personally. I have found them to generally be a wonderful group comprised of strong individuals with healthy egos. I wouldn't want their jobs. A big part of my job is to be aggressive in prosecuting those who attempt to harm officers so the officers can be out there protecting the rest of us. I respect the officers' decisions. They know they can call me, whenever and wherever, to run through a "situation". Respect is earned, not given.
I have been a prosecutor for seventeen years. The primary thing I try to get through to the youth I prosecute is that they are stuck dealing with the court system because of choices they made. Not because somebody ratted them out, not because they got caught, or whatever other excuse they have. They are with us because on a specific day they made a really poor decision, or series of decisions. I also make it clear our purpose is not to say they are bad people. They made bad decisions. In order to move on they need to suck it up, accept responsibility for the consequences of those choices, and move on. Those who do are successful. Those who don't move on to the adult system.
The very concepts I use are laid out in the Potter series for everyone to see, discuss, and use. It is wonderful. I have watched a young man whose mother sold drugs to support her habit and who had missed all of junior high to sell drugs himself in order to buy groceries for his little brothers go on to play football at one of our system's residential programs, bring his grades up, and go on to college on a football scholarship. I have also watched a young man whose father is a well respected physician resist all efforts to help him cope with his issues go on to spend 25 years in prison. It all comes down to making choices and accepting responsibility for those choices.
So, thats the story of why I am such a huge fan of J.K. Rowling and the brilliant world she has given us.
Thanks for letting me share!

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