MAJOR Nerd Moment: Harry Potter Life Lessons

Harry Potter has a great storyline, there’s no doubt about that. But there’s a lot more to the series than just a young wizard and his friends fighting off evil. At the beginning of quarantine, I decided to read the entire Harry Potter series for the 10 millionth time, just to read between the lines and see if I can learn anything else from the books that have impacted my life in so many ways. Yes, my mom and I have attended two LeakyCons in a row, which are Harry Potter fan conventions by the way (don’t judge us). That’s beside the point. I’ve noticed that a lot of the lessons that are embedded within the series can be applied during this time of uncertainty and doubt. Here are my top six life lessons that the series teaches us, which can also apply during our time in quarantine.

1.         Talk about things: Voldemort is referred to as “he who shall not be named” throughout the entire series. He serves as a metaphor for those things in life that we’re too afraid to speak and/or talk about. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore and Harry have a conversation about Harry’s dream about Voldemort and Quirrell. When Harry starts to say Voldemort’s name and winds up saying “You Know Who” instead, Dumbledore says, “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” It’s important to talk about the things that scare us, especially seen during this time. It’s never good to just keep everything bottled in.

2.         Friendship is essential: Harry had Hermione and Ron to help him face many of life’s challenges. Without them, he arguably wouldn’t have made it to where he ended up. He needed his friends to help him hunt down Horcruxes and fight off Voldemort—he especially needed them for emotional support throughout his time at Hogwarts. Friends give you a support network that you can lean on during the hard times. It’s important to tell your friends what’s going on in your life, and ask them for help when you need it. That’s what friends are for, as Ron, Hermione, and Harry show us so well.

  

3.         Community is important: As a whole, Hogwarts teaches us that our communities are so important to our everyday lives. I’d argue that Hogwarts would’ve fallen to the Dark Arts amid Professor Umbridge’s reign in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix if it hadn’t have been for Dumbledore’s Army (led by Harry himself). Even in the last chapter of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the entire Hogwarts community bands together to defeat Voldemort. If the whole school wasn’t there to protect each other, the battle would’ve been lost. Let’s face it: we don’t have a group of wizards to turn to for support, you know, because we’re all Muggles. But we can all reach out to our TCU community, as well as our community of friends and family if we need help.

4.         Face your fears: This lesson is especially shown through Ron. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron and Harry venture into the Forbidden Forest when they see a trail of spiders going in the same direction. Ron was petrified because spiders are his biggest fear. But, he went into the Forbidden Forest with Harry anyway. In life, we’re going to have to travel into our own Forbidden Forests even when the idea scares us half to death. This series teaches us that facing our fears is a great way, maybe even the only way, to overcome them.

5.         Never give up and believe in yourself: If there’s one thing that this series (and Harry) have taught me, it's to never give up. Harry endured so much pain and suffering during the series, and he persevered through it all, even when things seemed too daunting. Harry showed me that I can push through even the darkest and hardest of times, and in the end, I will bounce back and achieve greatness. Ron also shows me that believing in yourself is a key to success. In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Ron believes that Harry uses the Liquid Luck potion on him, and he ends up having a perfect Quidditch match, as he blocked every single shot as goal keeper. However, he didn’t have the potion in him—he was successful all on his own and by his own power. Everything has a way of working itself out in the end, maybe in ways we don’t expect. It's also as Dumbledore said in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

6.         You’re strong: Yes, it’s true that Harry couldn’t have fought off Voldemort and his evil without all the help he received along the way. He ESPECIALLY couldn’t have done it without Neville’s help in destroying the last Horcrux: Voldemort’s snake, Nagini. However, in the final moments of the Battle of Hogwarts, it was just Harry and Voldemort. He stood alone during these moments, with just his wand in hand. Even with the Elder Wand, Voldemort found himself fighting a losing battle. Harry came out on top. It’s important that we realize that we need to channel our inner Harry Potter—we are all strong, and we can get through anything if we set our minds to it!

I know that quarantine is a difficult time for us all. But, just like Harry teaches us: we’ve got this! J