20 Life Lessons I Learned from Harry Potter
For Millennials like myself, Harry Potter wasn’t just a book series; it was everything. 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.
Animals are sometimes (and often) better company
seeing Harry happily flying over the Hogwart’s lake with Buckbeak and ******** Hedwig’s head after a hard day made this lesson 10 times more relatable
- see, animals are sometimes the best company we have.
Friends will get you out of trouble, but best friends will get in trouble with you
A true best friend will be right there in the thick of it
Sometimes we have to face our own battles alone
We can’t rely on our friends or family to somehow save us from our own problems every time. confronting our challenges alone is the best way to learn to fight your own battles.
- No one said it’d be easy, but Harry Potter proved it’s worth it.
Ultimate power must be used with caution
When it’s used for good, power has the ability to change the world for the better. When it’s used for evil, power can destroy it
- The elder wand is an example of this
- Wizards have to kill its master to own it, friends kill each other for it, and even the wand itself is a machine of destruction
Being invisible isn’t as great as we think it’d be
Sure, it’s 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 overhears the rumor that Sirius betrayed his his parents.
Confidence is not the same thing as bravery
Bravery comes from within, and cannot be confused with confidence
- Ravenclaw was known for producing an imitation hero, Professor Lockhart
- And look where all that bravery got him – a faulty memory, a worthless book deal, and the boot from Hogwarts
Sometimes our enemies turn out to be our friends in disguise
Our original assumptions of others are often not as spot on as we think
- From Snape to Sirius, to even Dobby, Harry was proven wrong time and time again by his initial judgments
- 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
You should never let anyone get the best of you
Hermione showed us how we shouldn’t be defined by what we are, but rather who we are.
Sometimes we have to face our fears to get what we want
Sometimes life requires us to pop our bubble for our own good
- “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”.
- Learning to use his patronus meant protecting himself and others from the soul-sucking power of the Dementor’s kiss.
Money can’t buy happiness
Money isn’t everything, but it’s hard when you’re a young kid unlocking a vault full of galleons to not think it is
- Harry’s parents are the reason for his inherited wealth – his deceased parents didn’t want him to get rich
We can’t change our past, but we can change our future
Our past shapes us as people, but it doesn’t have to shape the course of our lives.
- Harry 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.
With age comes wisdom
Whenever Harry Potter was in a tough situation, Dumbledore would always give brilliant advice or offer a wise suggestion.
The power of love is stronger than the power of hatred
We can’t possibly win over everyone, but Harry Potter showed us that we can triumph in our relationships with loved ones.
There’s always some mysterious force working in our favor (or to our disadvantage)
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.
You should never go anywhere alone without telling or bringing someone
Always tell someone where you’re going or bring a buddy with you.
We are never 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 was when Harry wasn’t receiving any letters from his friends all summer, only to find out Dobby had been hiding them from him the entire time.
- The next scene with Ron and the Weasley twins rescuing him in their flying car was just the cherry on top of the surrounded-by-support sundae.
Magic exists, even for us Muggles
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 more to others than meet the eye
Often times we unintentionally judge others based on their appearance, but sometimes our assessments aren’t accurate
Adolescent dances are terrible
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, the movie scene brought back a lot of bad memories. Those dances should just be banned all together, right Umbridge?
With age comes attractiveness
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.