Posy Olivetti, a freshman at CofC, is a Harry Potter fanatic. I asked her what started her obsession, and she told me that her family got her hooked on the series. When she was little, her mom would read the books to her and take her to the midnight releases at their local bookstore. As she got older, she was able to then read them on her own.
Posy showcases her Harry Potter obsession in many different ways. In her common room, there’s a hand-painted Hogwarts tapestry hanging up above her couch that she got for Christmas last year. When Halloween came around, she dressed in a Harry Potter costume, fully decked out in Gryffindor colors. She told me that she loves to going to the library because she can check out any Harry Potter book that she wants – for free! And her obsession doesn’t stop there. I asked her more about her Harry Potter obsession and what it was like to be on the CofC Quidditch team, a popular extracurricular for college students across the world that was inspired by the series itself.
Haley: Tell us more about what your week looks like as part of the Quidditch team.
Posy: We practice Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and sometimes we have tournaments on the weekends. The farthest we’ve traveled for a tournament is Boone, NC. We also have played in a regional tournament for a chance to compete in Orlando. If we get to go, they will shut down the entire Universal Studios for one night just for us!
H: Are you happy that you joined the team? What have you gotten out of it?
P: I’m really happy that I’m apart of the team. The first practice I was really nervous because I went alone, but now I have so many friends. Most of them are Seniors which sucks because they leave next year, but we hang out outside of practice all the time.
H: What advice would you give to incoming freshmen?
P: Don’t compare your college experience to others’, especially from what you see on social media. The first week of college, my friends posted so many pictures of them at social events with their ‘friends,’ and I felt so bad about myself because I hadn’t made any yet. But they weren’t really their friends. These were people they’d take a picture with, post it, and then never see them again. I’m also from Boston, and I would wonder if I should’ve stayed closer to home so I would have more friends from high school. The first month is a really hard adjustment. You just can’t compare yourself to others.
In our interview, Posy told me how important it is to get involved. After all, she would’ve never been able to fully experience college in Charleston and follow her passions if she didn’t join the Quidditch team. She’s also a Math Major and a part of the Honors Student Association.
Posy most definitely follows her passions, even if they might seem “different” to others.
“At first I thought it was going to be weird [being apart of the Quidditch team], but I’ve made my best friends from it. That’s why I think it’s so important to get involved, and why I recommend it to freshmen who are coming next year.”