At 8:30 pm on Saturday, July 23^rd 2011 my childhood ended.

As I wiped away the tears and looked at Megan with a weepy smile we knew that a chapter of our lives had been closed. We had just watched the final Harry Potter film.

We sat through the film with tense limbs and an anxious mentality. My nostalgic feelings and personal attachments to each of the characters seeped out and were matched by those around me. We all felt as though we had watched Harry grow up and now we were watching him fulfill his destiny.

And that’s the dramatic version of the story.

Truth is, Harry Potter has been present through most of our childhood. Nearly everyone in the house remembers locking themselves in their room or snuggling into their favorite armchair to read for hours upon hours with the newest Harry Potter book. For the films, we’d dress up as our favorite character and arrived two hours early for the midnight showing. It’s been a tradition for most of our lives.

So naturally as I watched previews for the final film, a sense of anxiety set in. I would be in Ghana when the film was released. Although I was bursting with excitement at the upcoming adventure, I knew that I’d somehow need to see Harry Potter. It was a tradition I wasn’t ready to break.

Elise and I took charge on the movie going front. We found the theater and website where show times were listed. We asked our co-workers for movie-going advice and looked up prices.  Harry Potter was release in Accra four days after it was released in the USA. However, going to see a movie on a Tuesday with fourteen people and varying work schedules was not practical. So we held in our anxiety until our final free weekend.

Yesterday, a handful of us decided to splurge and finally see the final Harry Potter movie for an overwhelming 13 cd. It truly was a splurge as many of us are down to our last few dollars as the trip comes to an end. It was worth it.

The theater was much larger than I had expected. I, of course, was the first one in line to enter the theater and when the doors were finally open Megan and I ran in and chose the best seats. As we settled in, we were joined by a mob of Obrunies (foreigners). Apparently we were not the only people who had decided that seeing this film was a must.

After sitting though twenty minutes of commercials (not previews) the movie started and the excitement quieted the once noisy theater. Megan and I watched with our fingers laced over our eyes or pressed against our mouths in tension. It was great.

Before we knew it, the movie was over. We left the westernized theater and returned to the streets of Ghana in search for a taxi and another adventure set for the next day.

– Neethu