(Almost) Seven Years at HOL
When I first joined HOL, it never occurred to me that I would stick around long enough to graduate. My friend who had joined prior to myself had warned me that HOL terms were carried out in real time, meaning you actually have to spend one full year in real life in order to experience one school year before you can advance to the next. This means signing up seven years of your life before you can finish being a student. That is a long time. I didn't think about it too much at first, and like so many other Hogwarts schools online that I have tried before I found HOL, I figured I probably would also get bored, have enough of it, and move on after a few months or a few years tops.
At the beginning I definitely didn't try to get involved too much, still keeping a safe distance even if I was curious. But what I'd known from the start — what was so easy to see even as a newcomer — was that HOL is the most organized and best structured Hogwarts online site there is. Or at least, as far as I have seen. It offers the most "real" experience, with actual classes that actually require you to read an actual lesson and do an actual homework just like in any other real life school, and the whole real-time school year thing I'd mentioned in the beginning. I think it actually works very well in adding to that real atmosphere HOL has got going on. Imagine if you only have to spend a month or so in order to advance to the next year. You'd be done very soon, and I think I probably would have moved on much sooner myself.
It is this dedication, this attention to detail and realness that eventually hooked me in. It amazed me, made me think that this is the place worth all the work you're putting into even as you're really just "playing" as a student and won't receive an actual diploma. But in the end, I don't think it will matter if the diploma isn't "real". It will feel real to us, the people who have spent seven long years here studying just like any other Hogwarts student would've. For me, that diploma will be real. That sense of accomplishment upon finally graduating and all my other achievements will feel real. And that's all that matters to me. Looking back now, I actually can't believe it has been seven years since I joined. Time flies when you enjoy yourself, and I have enjoyed myself immensely. I wish it didn't go by so fast. I wish I have more than just one year left.
Compared to all the other sites where I've only roleplayed being in class and got points for writing a few imaginative lines, HOL offers a much more complete experience of being a Hogwarts student. It not only requires real dedication from the ones who run it, but also from us, the ones who enjoy the experience. If you don't actually want to learn something and be a real student, HOL isn't your place. Because online "game" or not, HOL is an actual school. It has taught me so many things over the years, thanks to the vast amount of classes and the subjects offered.
And I commend the people who had conceived the idea, built it, made it happen, and eventually kept it going until now, ten years later and counting. With so many different sites dedicated to Harry Potter out there, it's difficult to stay afloat, let alone continue to flourish, and yet every year at HOL when new student registrations are opened, we're always swarmed with new hopeful students. The tide never ceases, and the site continues to get better and better, improving with time instead of declining.
As a Seventh Year student at HOL today, I'm proud to say that I have stuck it out with HOL for my full student experience, and I'm confident to say that I will stick around for many more years to come, as no doubt this amazing site would too. For those of you who are only starting out, I hope you will too, because it's definitely worth it.