I do a lot of mundane things. Everyone does. And I'm sure those tasks bore everyone to tears. They don't quite bore me to tears but they do make me bored. It's more interesting when I try to make things more magical.
By drawing connections between my life and Harry Potter.
For example.
The train. It's boring. It's boring as all get out. Ok actually it's not that boring, I mean, looking out the windows makes it a pretty nice adventure. But in the bleak and dark hours of the morning, yes. It's boring. It's really boring. And it's really crowded. It helps a lot to think of it less as a morning commute to school and work and more like a commute to Hogwarts. That sleepy guy sitting across from me with suspicious facial scars, he might just be a werewolf. ALREADY life is more interesting.
Or studying. I was always impressed by the characters in Harry Potter because they're like... 12 years old and they study. I can honestly say, I don't remember doing homework, let alone studying in high school. I did it in school, if I'm remembering correctly. And if I did study, it was only at the encouragement of my mom. If I was living at Hogwarts, I would have a lot harder time studying on my own. But the kids did that.
Then I moved away to college and actually had to study to get by, and I studied on my own. I turned off the lights and turned on a sleepy looking lamp (sounds cute!) and studied. Sometimes when I was bored, I'd study for fun. Because if I thought I was studying for magic classes, it was cooler. Or if I stopped measuring how long my essays were by pages, and started measuring them by how long they were in feet? That was more magical and more entertaining. The whole of college was just a lot more interesting if I imagined it was Hogwarts.
Along that note, Joseph said that the kids at Hogwarts are spoiled and don't know how good they have it. Why are they complaining about studying magic?! That's fascinating! I'd be studying for fun there too, if I'm honest with myself. Maybe that's where Hermione is coming from.
You know potions class? Snape was a total jerk. But think about it. How hard can potions be? People always gave it a bad wrap for being super hard but really, I don't think it could possibly be so hard! They have a book sitting in front of them. With detailed instructions on how to do each step. I do NOT understand how people can mess it up. Their problem was they kept talking to each other and goofing off and getting distracted. As a teacher, I can see how that would tick off Snape. So cut the guy some slack.
Potions is a lot like cooking.
You've got a recipe book in front of you and you're stirring things in pots on stoves and sometimes if you're getting into real crazy stuff then you deal with recipes that even tell you what way to stir stuff. Or how many stirs. Or how long to stir. And you mix stuff together. Crushing a clove of garlic? More like crushing a beozar. OH MY GOSH. I just googled how to spell that. It's bezoar. I've been saying it wrong in my head this whole time.
Sometimes in potions you have to memorize the potions and what they do and stuff... and memorize how to make them and all that. But you do that with cooking too, sometimes. I can think of maybe 50 dishes I can make without a recipe. I guess if I forget that it's 1.5 teaspoons of salt instead of 2 teaspoons of salt, that's no big deal, but if I forget how much bubotuber pus I'm supposed to use, that could be lethal. So maybe potions is a bit harder than cooking, sure.
Though, when I'm being really hoity toity, I don't get how people can be bad at cooking. Just follow the directions. I truly do not believe that if you follow the directions completely, you'll make a terrible dish. So pull yourselves together, people of the world.
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