Slytherin!

Bad News…

I have some bad news for you today: I’m evil.

Or… at least, that’s how I felt after taking the official Harry Potter Sorting Hat quiz.

My house? Slytherin.

And my patronus? A black mamba. You know, the world’s deadliest snake.

Yikes.

None of this will make any sense if you’re not familiar with Harry Potter. But basically, wizarding students at Hogwarts (the wizarding school in Great Britain) get sorted into one of four “houses”, each of which has a trademark personality tendency.

Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are smart, Hufflepuffs are loyal, and Slytherins are… well, not EXPLICITLY evil. The term they use is “ambitious”. But it’s openly stated that there’s “not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin”.

(Slytherin also has a disturbing history of racism/supremacy, which I am not even going to TOUCH right now.)

I don’t know why you’d sort students by these traits, and I don’t believe that there are only four types of people. But it got me thinking: why do we interpret ambition as negative?

I am actually a very ambitious person. I always worked hard in school for top grades and applied for leadership positions whenever the chance arose. Today, I have a big vision for my business, and I get really excited about drawing out the potential in myself and others.

Now, I feel like this is the point where most people roll their eyes and call me an over-achiever or a nerd, or insinuate that I have a need to control, compete with, or dominate other people. In that sense, I totally get why ambition can be seen as a negative trait.

But for me, it’s not about other people. It’s about me taking full advantage of my own potential and wanting to make the world a better place. It’s not about competing with or dominating others, but rather ensuring that we all rise together.

I can see how unchecked ambition without empathy could lead to truly evil deeds (i.e., Voldemort, the villain in Harry Potter).

But I think ambition on its own is something we should applaud, not malign.

Words & warmth,

Sarah

P.S. Also, I love snakes! They’re so cute and so very unfairly maligned!