A Magical Year

MuggleNet celebrated fifteen years the other week. MuggleNet is a site that I’ve known about for a long time, and always used to visit for my Potter news. For Potter fans it’s a go to resource for news and information about the Potter world.

And then a year ago, I happened to see on Twitter a call for applications for journalism interns. And I thought, well, why not. I’ll give it a shot. Writing and Harry Potter – two of my favourite things. It would be perfect - I wanted something new to do, a new challenge, and I wanted to be develop my writing skills. So, I sent the email off and forgot about it. I never thought I’d ever be picked.

But a few days later a wonderful email dropped into my inbox. The email told me that I had been chosen as one of the interns. I don’t know how I managed to compose an email back that wasn’t full of OMG/I CAN’T BELIEVE IT/THANK YOU SO MUCH. But somehow I did (in fact, I think I underplayed it quite a lot).

And so the journey began.

I couldn’t believe that I was lucky enough to be a part of that amazing team and be able to write things that were posted on MUGGLENET itself. It was a dream come true, and very, very surreal. I threw myself in there, with plenty of enthusiasm and determination to do well.

And then, by December I received an email to tell me that I was being promoted to a full time staff member if I wanted it. If I wanted it - of course I did! Despite receiving the email so early in the morning, I was bouncing around delighted, because I couldn't believe it - I couldn't believe that they wanted me and I had discovered that it was something that I adored doing. And it was a bonus that everyone on the team was very welcoming, happy to help out with any questions, queries or issues, and lots of fun as well. I was a bit nervous of everyone at first, but soon settled in. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of, and it was amazing to feel part of the Potter world in a way that I never had before. And it was so good to be surrounded by people who cared as much as I did. I kept it to myself for a while, because I loved it so much and it was special and I just loved being a part of it. I was soon given my own MuggleNet email address, invited to my first staff meeting, and started helping out with some things for the upcoming site relaunch. And just like that I was thrown in in the most wonderful way.

Since then, the year has flown by, but it has been amazing and so magical. I have been able to attend the Studio Tour TWICE for the site, writing up a review about it, reviewed books, written countless articles, helped out with other projects on the site, and helped to solve that J.K. Rowling anagram she posted on Twitter, as well as other things I'm sure I've missed. I have made wonderful friends and over the summer even met Toni in person, one of the other writers who started at the same time that I did. I have been given a whole new world and I adore it. It's impossible to quite explain and describe all my feeling towards this, and how much I LOVE it.

Once again, I find that I have to thank Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling for so much. And of course the wonderful team at MuggleNet for taking me on and letting me be a part of all of this. So thank you all for such an amazing year. It's been incredible. It's amazing to be part of such a hardworking, dedicated, and enthusiastic team. Thank you for EVERYTHING. And I look forward to what's next and all the magical things to come.Here's to another magical year!