Everyone celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter book series over a month ago, and the actual character turned 37 years old over a week ago, so I’m definitely late to both parties. But better late than never, right? And hey, I just realized that I’m actually super early for the 16th anniversary of the movie series. I’ve got that going for me, at least!

I’ve had everything Harry Potter on the brain recently, which is most likely due to checking my Yahoo email and then going to the homepage. There’s more than one article every single day with titles similar to “This new Harry Potter theory will TOTALLY blow you away” or “This Harry Potter character is ABSOLUTELY more powerful than you thought.” I only want a ton of articles about Game of Thrones theories and Marvel movie news, okay, Yahoo? Thanks.

In all seriousness, though, the ever-present Harry Potter articles serve as a daily reminder of how influential the material remains 20 years later. People continue to talk about J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world at length, and she even gets involved in the discussion from time to time. Her website, Pottermore, has become the go-to place for anything related to the Harry Potter universe.

I signed up at Pottermore recently and discovered that apparently, my Hogwarts house is Hufflepuff. My patronus is a mountain hare. My wand is ash wood with a unicorn hair core 14 ½” and quite bendy flexibility, and yes, I had to read about what any of that means; I can’t say that I know wand types off the top of my head. My Ilvermorny house is Pukwudgie, and I had to read up on that as well. I didn’t even know what Ilvermorny was until I watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

I can’t say that I’m a hardcore fan of Harry Potter. However, I can say with certainty that I’m one of those people that grew up with the series and loved it. I remember my mom and dad reading the first three books to my brother and me. My dad pronounced Hermione “Her-me-OH-nee.” My brother and I wrote on the inside cover of our books–and I mean any of our books–and pretended that they were Hogwarts textbooks. We used chopsticks for wands. As I got older, I started reading the rest of the series on my own. I remember my brother spoiling Deathly Hallows. These people died, and these other people married each other, and I was so pissed!

I remember watching each movie faithfully when it was Harry Potter Weekend on ABC Family. That block was amazing. It was on so often, especially when the movies were still in theaters. The network would simply add the most recent movie to the line-up, and the block would get even longer. Yet I never watched all of the movies in one sitting. That marathon would be insane. Sometimes, it was just nice to flip through channels, see one of the movies playing, and tune in until that movie finished. Other times, I would actively look for Harry Potter Weekend and remember which movie was happening when and watch it all the way through when the time came. Regardless, for me, most weekends were Harry Potter Weekends.

I didn’t do midnight showings at the movie theater too often, but I went to The Half-Blood Prince on its opening night. I recall going with my best friend and another friend of ours. The latter had read the book before we saw the movie. From what she told us, doing that had been a mistake. So much was left out, and these parts never happened. I’m glad that I didn’t do that. I don’t want to be a stickler and point out all the reasons why a movie or TV adaptation sucks compared to the books they’re based on. I enjoy every Harry Potter movie for different reasons. I probably couldn’t pick a favorite movie or book from the series. They’re all that good.

Both the Harry Potter books and movies are staples of pop culture. They touched people around the world and across generations. They created a phenomenon that is impossible to get away from, even 20 years later. Hell, the books might be taught in school one day! I don’t know. Yet I’m positive that there will be some people, old and new fans alike, who celebrate the series’ 100th anniversary in 2097. I probably won’t live to be 104, but if I do, I know that I’ll be one of them.