20 Life Lessons I Learned from Harry Potter
For Millennials like myself,
Harry Potter wasn’t just a book series; it was everything. When Harry Potter
enrolled as a first year student at Hogwarts, many of us were starting school
for the first time too. The end of the book/movie series even finished around
our high school or college graduation. We grew up with Harry Potter, and his
story developed with ours.
So it comes as no surprise
that there are several life lessons the majority of our generation learned from
the series along the way. After all, Harry Potter wasn’t exactly the “chosen
one” when it came to being a model student. Here are 20 life lessons we learned
from Harry Potter over the course of the series and our adolescent lives.
1.
We can’t change our past, but we can change our future
Despite the inconsistencies
that Hermione’s time turner created for the novel’s plot (because why save only
Buckbeak when they could save Lily and James Potter too, am I right?), the
above still rings true. Our past shapes us as people, but it doesn’t have to
shape the course of our lives. While it can be said that all the series’
characters are prime examples of this, the most obvious of all is Harry, who
lost his parents as a baby and as a result had to live with his retched uncle,
aunt, and cousin afterward. And yet, this all changed his life for the better
by him choosing to attend Hogwarts. The rest is magical history.
2. Sometimes we
have to face our fears to get what we want
As much as we’d all like to stay in the comfort of our bubble,
sometimes life requires us to pop it for our own good. In Ron’s case,
“following the spiders” meant finding the answer to rescuing Hermione from her
stunned state in the second novel, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.
In Harry’s case, learning to use his patronus meant protecting himself and
others from the soul-sucking power of the Dementor’s kiss. In our case…well, we
just have to get through an average day to make it to bed by the end.
3. Money can’t
buy happiness
You know what people say – money isn’t everything. And it’s not,
but it’s hard when you’re a young kid unlocking a vault full of galleons to not
think it is. And let’s be real, seeing Harry practically rolling in money like
Scrooge McDuck probably sparked the inner gold-digger in all of us. That is, of
course, until we realized the Mirror of Erised didn’t show him a landmine of
coins, but rather the reason for his inherited wealth – his deceased parents.
Still, think that trolley full of pumpkin pasties were a fair trade for a
family? Yeah, didn’t think so.
4. We are never
truly alone
All of us are subject to the feeling of loneliness, but are we
ever truly alone? While seemingly on his own most of the time, Harry Potter
always had the support of his friends and guardians, showing us that there’s no
such thing as ever being truly alone. The best example of this in the series
for me was when Harry wasn’t receiving any letters from his friends all summer,
feeling neglected and rejected by them, only to find out Dobby had been hiding
them from him the entire time. The next scene that followed, with Ron and the
Weasley twins rescuing him in their flying car, was just the cherry on top of
the surrounded-by-support sundae.
5. Friends will
get you out of trouble, but best friends will get in trouble with you
Sure, a friend will help you out of a predicament (like Lupin
did when Snape caught Harry with the Marauder’s Map), but a true best friend
will be right there in the thick of it. Any time Harry found himself in a
troubling situation, Ron and Hermione faced it with him. I mean, think about
it. Can you imagine facing a whomping willow, three-headed dog, and life-size
lethal chess set without your best friends? My guess is no.
6. Sometimes we
have to face our own battles alone
As much as it helped to have his friends through every obstacle,
Harry always ended up confronting his challenger alone and for good reason. We
can’t rely on our friends or family to somehow save us from our own
problems every time. We have to learn to fight our own battles at some
point, whether it’s dealing with the petty jealousy of a friend when you’re
unknowingly entered in a contest, or defeating a massive basilisk in the
demented water park of your school’s basement. No one said it’d be easy, but
Harry Potter proved it’d be worth it.
7. Animals are
sometimes (and often) better company
I don’t think any of us needed the Harry Potter series to learn
this life truth, but somehow seeing Harry happily flying over the Hogwart’s
lake with Buckbeak and stroking Hedwig’s head after a hard day made this lesson
10 times more relatable.
8. Confidence
is not the same thing as bravery
While Gryffindor was known for producing the bravest of the
Hogwart’s bunch, Ravenclaw was known for producing an imitation hero, and his
name was Professor Lockhart. More than anyone in the novels, Gildroy Lockhart
proved to us that bravery comes from within and cannot be confused with its
egotistical cousin, confidence. And look where all that “bravery” got him – a
faulty memory, a worthless book deal, and the boot from Hogwarts.
9. You should
never let anyone get the best of you
We may not have realized it as children, but Malfoy’s slandering
of Muggles, especially Hermione, was an evident example of the prominence of
racially-charged bullying. Hermione’s “non-magical blood” made her an enemy in
the eyes of the “pure-blood” Slytherins (tell me that’s not a reference to
racism). However, Hermione showed us how we shouldn’t be defined by what we
are, but rather who we are. And she certainly succeeded in doing so when she
punched Malfoy in the third novel. You go, Hermione.
10. There’s
always some mysterious force working in our favor (or to our disadvantage)
This kind of goes along the same lines as the “you’re never
alone” lesson, but speaks to the surprise element of our sly support system.
While Harry didn’t know it throughout the course of the series, Snape was
always on the side of Dumbledore in protecting Harry from Voldemort, despite
Harry’s continuous distrust in him. On the flip side, Harry trusted Mad-Eye
Moody in the fourth novel and ended up in a graveyard with the reinvented
Voldemort to be nearly killed. So if you think about it, the Harry Potter
series destroyed our trust in everyone.
11. You should
never go anywhere alone without telling or bringing someone
This life lesson was beaten into our brains when we were kids,
but still applies to us adults. If we learned anything from Hermione
discovering a psychotic troll in the girl’s bathroom while alone, it’s that we
should always tell someone where we’re going or bring a buddy with us. Girls,
this is a warning – never let your friends go to the bathroom in a bar alone.
You never know what other kind of troll is going to be lurking nearby.
12. There’s
more to others than meet the eye
Often times we unintentionally judge others based on their
appearance, but sometimes our assessments aren’t accurate. A great example of
this in the Harry Potter series was the character of Sirius Black. For the
majority of the third novel, all of us, including Harry, thought he was some
crazy, traitorous murderer with a bone to pick with the Potter boy. Then J.K.
Rowling did a 180 and turned him into the caring, cool godfather trying to
avenge Harry’s parents. Talk about a plot twist.
13. Adolescent
dances are terrible
Do I need to say more? After watching Ron pine after Hermione,
Hermione cry over Ron, and Harry sit alone like every uninterested young boy
after his date angrily left him to go dance, I think we could all say the movie
scene brought back a lot of bad memories. Those dances should just be banned
all together, right Umbridge?
14. Being
invisible isn’t as great as we think it’d be
As great as the superpower may seem for every introvert and
grumpy cat-like person, invisibility isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sure,
it’s pretty awesome that Harry gets to move around unnoticed and avoid unwanted
attention, but the costs sometimes come more than the rewards. Take for
instance when Harry’s roaming around Hogsmeade in his invisibility cloak. He’s
all happy, licking a lollipop, and then all of a sudden – boom. He overhears
the rumor that Sirius betrayed his his parents. In the next moment, Harry’s
crying in the snow and shouting, “He was their friend!” Yeah, I think I’d
rather have the gift of cooking delicious Harry Potter meals instead.
15. Ultimate
power must be used with caution
If there’s anything we’ve learned from Harry Potter, it’s that
power is a great and terrible thing. When it’s used for good, power has the
ability to change the world for the better. When it’s used for evil though,
power has the ability to destroy it. Aside from Voldemort, the best example the
novels give us of the detrimental nature of ultimate power is the creation of
the elder wand. Wizards have to kill its master to own it, friends kill each
other to own it…it’s just all around a machine of destruction. However, I will
say the elder wand would make a fantastic travel companion. Accio best vacation
ever? I think so.
16. With age
comes wisdom
Of all the quotes I’ve accumulated in Word documents, notebooks,
and Pinterest over the years, the majority of them come from the Harry Potter
series – and most of those were spoken by none other than Dumbledore himself.
Whenever Harry found himself in a tough situation, we could always rely on
Dumbledore to give brilliant advice or offer a wise suggestion. After all, the
man had lived for over a century. It’s not too far-fetched to say he’d learned
a couple things or two in his lifetime.
17. With age
comes attractiveness (or unattractiveness)
I’m not the first to say it, but I think I speak for us all when
I say Neville pleasantly surprised everyone by the end of the movie series.
Talk about a transformation! It just goes to show us that attractiveness can
develop over time, and the same goes for unattractiveness. Not to name names,
but a certain Gryffindor cutie didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped he
would.
18. The power
of love is stronger than the power of hatred
The phrase “kill them with kindness” applies here. We can’t
possibly win over everyone, but Harry Potter showed us that we can triumph in
our relationships with loved ones. Even with Voldemort’s constant death
threats, Harry Potter always had a support system of family and friends to help
him along the way. And in the end, that made all the difference.
19. Sometimes
our enemies turn out to be our friends in disguise
Have you ever known someone you couldn’t stand, only to find out
they were actually a pretty decent, bearable person? The question’s rhetorical,
but it’s true – our original assumptions of others are often not as spot on as
we think. In Harry Potter’s life, this seemed to be especially relevant. From
Snape to Sirius, to even Dobby, Harry was proven wrong time and time again by
his initial judgments. Then again, when you’ve got an entire band of evil
misfits against you, it’s safe to say you’d be a little weary of people too.
20. Magic
exists, even for us Muggles
It’s cheesy, I know, but there’s a certain magic we all
experience at some point or another in our lives. While it might not be in the
form of witchcraft, the magic we come across can be found in the people,
places, and things around us. There’s magic in travelling, writing, reading, music,
friendship, love, you name it; and it’s often found where it’s sought.
So for those of us who began and ended our childhood with Harry
Potter, fear not. The magic lives on, just in a different way.
NICOLE M
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/20-life-lessons-learned-from-harry-potter.html?ref=mail&mtype=daily_newsletter&mid=20170220_customized_editor_pick&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=click
No comments:
Post a Comment