As does Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I choose to start the adventure of the Harry Potter Project on a Tuesday, although for some of us it may not be so gloomy or depressing. On the contrary, it (I hope) is an amazing day that will bring a sense of new beginnings and empowerment into our lives. It is (and was) a day that even Muggles can celebrate—that’s how amazing it was (and is).

Some dark lord has been vanquished, some man named Voldemort, a name and a legacy that inspired fear in the hearts of men and women for eleven years, now mysteriously gone with a boy named Harry Potter. That Tuesday everyone raised their glasses and in the most solemn tone declared, “To Harry Potter, the boy who lived.”

This Tuesday I think we should all do the same—raise our glasses high and give a toast and celebration to the lives of those that have lived—those who fight cancer, depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, and give that toast to all our friends who are the boy or girl who lived.

The dark lords in our lives may be in hiding or in plain view, but we are all fighting them to be the boy who lived as well.

As we fight, let us also raise our glasses to the Lily Potters in our lives who give or gave everything so that we could have the chance to fight and win against the darkness in our lives, so here’s to you, the one who lived.