Harry Potter Lessons Learned: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone remembered

We've wrapped up our chapter-by-chapter of the first book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. We learned a lot about the way the magical world works and a little bit about ourselves along the way. There are many take-aways and they can be very individual to each reader, but here is what I took away from this reading.

"The Potters, that's right."

The first book is unmistakably about identity. We talked about being true to yourself in our latest Lessons Learned installment, but we can find identity explored as early the first sentence. We know that the Dursleys "were perfectly normal, thank you very much." Hagrid gives Harry a new sense of self when he labels him a wizard. The customers at the Leaky Cauldron give Harry a place on a pedestal and he has no idea why.

At Hogwarts, we enjoy hearing about the backgrounds of Gryffindors who are new to the school. Neville admits that his family thought he wasn't magical enough and finds a way to prove everyone a fool when they underestimate him by the end of the book. Ron has his identity carved out for him as a Weasley, but is the first one to follow Harry into possibly mortal danger for the sake of the wizarding world. Hermione is always the cleverest witch at Hogwarts, but she becomes an indispensable part of Harry's found family.

But while people have labels assigned to them and can claim a heritage, the book is more about what every person with an expectation attached to them finds their own path. It's wonderful that Hagrid brings that idea full-circle when he gives Harry an album of photos of his parents. Rather than put this expectation on him at their first meeting, Hagrid bestows this gift when he's seen how Harry resembles the parents he never knew.

Lesson Learned: Be who you are

This may seem like a ridiculously simple piece of advice, but the message is to take pride in self-identifying. Meeting the person you grow into can be an incredibly rewarding experience, but you should give yourself credit for who you are along the way.

It's easy to judge yourself when things don't go exactly as planned, but it's also important to recognize where you grow.

We look forward to coming back to these books with you in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We have a house-elf to meet, a pudding to smash, and a book-long mystery to solve.