Friday, January 2, 2015
15 Life Lessons We Learned from Harry Potter
For fans like myself, Harry Potter
wasn’t just a book series; it was everything. It was my childhood. When Harry
Potter joined 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 ended around
our high school or college graduation. We grew up with Harry Potter, and his
story advanced with ours.
So it comes as no shock that there are numerous 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 15 life lessons we learned from Harry Potter over the progress of the
series and our youthful lives.
1. We can’t change our past, but we can change our future
Regardless of the conflicts 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 key examples of this, the most observable 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 coziness 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. 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 difficulty (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 deadly chess set without your best friends? My
guess is no.
4. Sometimes we have to face our own battles alone
As much as it helped to have his
friends through every hitch, Harry always ended up opposing his challenger
alone and for good reason. We can’t depend on 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 unintentionally entered in a contest, or beating
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.
5. Confidence is not the same thing as bravery
While Gryffindor was known for bring
into being the bravest of the Hogwart’s group, Ravenclaw was known for
producing an artificial 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.
6. 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.
7. 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 shock element of
our clever support system. While Harry didn’t know it during the course of the
series, Snape was always on the side of Dumbledore in protecting Harry from
Voldemort, regardless of Harry’s nonstop doubt 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.
8. There’s more to others than meet the eye
Often times we involuntarily judge
others based on their look, but sometimes our calculations aren’t exact. 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, disloyal 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.
9. 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 amazing that Harry gets to move around
undetected 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 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.
10. 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 awful 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 abolish it. Aside from
Voldemort, the best example the novels give us of the harmful 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 demolition. However, I will say the elder wand would make a
fantastic travel companion. Accio best vacation ever? I think so.
11. 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 depend on on Dumbledore to give clear 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.
12. 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 amusingly amazed everyone by the
end of the movie series. Talk about a puberty! It just goes to show us that charm
can develop over time, and the same goes for unpleasantness. Not to name names,
but a certain Gryffindor cutie didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped he
would.
13. The power of love is stronger than the power of hatred
The phrase “kill them with
kindness” relates 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.
14. 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, manageable
person? The question’s rhetorical, but it’s true – our unusual assumptions of
others are often not as spot on as we think. In Harry Potter’s life, this
seemed to be especially applicable. From Snape to Sirius, to even Dobby, Harry
was proven wrong time and time again by his early 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 exhausted of people too.
15. 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 wizardry, 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.
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