10 Things To Know About Life (from Pirates of the Caribbean)

I am 18 years old. And I am about to tell you what you can learn from a Disney movie.

You've been warned.

Being a teenager means that I'm the target audience for all the articles on mistakes young graduates make, the problems with young people, and all the things I should be doing #IfIwere22.

I have something to say about this, by the way. If I were 22, I know exactly what I’d be doing. I’d appreciate being able to go to bars in the U.S. The U.S. is the over-cautious country where, at 18, I can buy a gun but not wine. I suppose they thought, “Hey, as long as kids don’t get drunk, there’s nothing stupid they can do with an AK-47, right?”

So, disclaimer: I’m young and my “life lessons” come from a short, alcohol-free life. But here is what I have learned so far, courtesy of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. (Which I obviously don't own.)

1. Life doesn’t have rules. They’re more like guidelines.

For example, “The early bird gets the worm.” Yes, but the early worm gets eaten.

Or “The pen is mightier than the sword.” But "actions speak louder than words."

Sometimes rules work, and sometimes they don’t. You have to make your own decisions.

2. You can be a good person without being a humble person.

My two all-time favorite characters are Sherlock Holmes and Jack Sparrow.  They do not try to be nice all the time, are very confident in their abilities, show off, and are loath to betray weakness. Yet, they are both good men who care deeply about people. (And speak in English accents.)

One of my favorite things about Holmes is that he doesn't like modesty. "To the logician," he says, "all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers."

In other words, humility and bragging are both flip sides of the same "let's lie about ourselves" coin.

Confidence is a good thing. Ego is a bad thing. Learn the difference.

3. There’s no such thing as safe. Only boring.

Every choice I have made that was safe in one way – often in terms of long-term financial prospects – was quite risky in another way – losing friendships, time, freedom, or happiness. It’s better to take risks and know what the actual advantages and disadvantages of each choice are than never find out because you’re too scared to try.

People never regret not making enough money when they die. They regret not being themselves and trying more things (which may or may not include being Pirate King).

4. Embrace your character and have your own style.

Be yourself, basically. For many of my teenage years, I struggled to be more of what people wanted me to be: more funny, more lady-like, less forward, less curious, and less confident.

I realize today that I have a unique fashion sense and I like war movies, Frozen, pretty dresses, and particle physics. I actually haven’t changed in some ways since I was 5.

That’s okay. That’s what makes me Isvari.

Aye, the compass doesn't point North. But we're not trying to find North, are we?

5. Sail where the compass takes you.

It’s okay to not know what you want. Or for your heart's true desire to change as quickly as Jack's.

Everyone overestimates what they can do in the short term and underestimates what they can do long-term. So don't plan everything out.

Go with your gut sometimes.  Follow the compass. Take things as they come and they will come.

6. The trick is not living forever. It’s living with yourself forever. 

It's like Captain Teague says. Life is temporary and fleeting. Fame, extra time, and money are all kind of useless if you hate the person you’ve become.

I would like to cite a lot of lawyers I’ve met on this one. They’re very rich. But they’re also very miserable.

7. Madness and brilliance are two sides of the same coin.

Every time scientists told JFK that we could not physically fly to the moon, he would say, “I don’t care, mate. We’re going to the moon.” (Or something like that, but more presidential.) This stupidity – or brilliance – is apparently called futureview and is practiced by every pirate in the films.

When you want something, you go for it. You don’t take no for an answer. You don’t let anything, even the reality that you are probably going to fail, get in the way. As Will Turner says, “No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight it.”

8. Friendship and freedom are more important than fame or success. Jack doesn’t want to be Pirate King. He just wants a ship, the freedom to travel around the world, and adventure.

He wants to be a pirate the way Sherlock Holmes wants to be a detective: for the love of the work and for the game. Dr. Watson always pointed out that a heartfelt compliment from a friend meant more to Holmes than heaps of public praise could.

It’s easy in today’s world of ten minutes of fame to forget that.

I hope I don’t.

9. Having regrets and being wrong is a necessary part of life.

For those of you who have watched the series, you know exactly what moment what I'm talking about. (Hint: It's near the end of the second movie.)

Basically, you say "I'm not sorry" after doing something horrible, but you're actually really, really sorry.

Look, I’m a teenager. I could pencil in (well, type in) “Regret decisions” into my daily schedule. But long-term I’ve realized that every mistake I’ve made has ended up getting me where I am today.

It's the butterfly effect and we don't know who the butterfly is or what color it's going to be or when it flaps its wings.

Or if it's actually a moth.

I might be wrong about everything I’ve just said, and hopefully I’ll have that figured out someday. But I’d never want to change the person I am now, because older me is going to be better for it. Probably.

10. Bring me that horizon.

For other things I learned from the Pirates of the Caribbean, check out these articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

Pirates of the Holy Land I: The Curse of Israel and Palestine

Pirates of the Holy Land II: Dead Men's Tally

Pirates of the Holy Land III: At The Conflict's End

Isvari is a Staff Writer for The Washington Times, is a Global Law Scholar at Georgetown Law, composes pop music, and has worked in cyber security law, astrophysics, particle physics, and politics. Her novel, The Eyes of Mikra, is about a spy with amnesia who remembers how to fight better than her male counterparts, but forgets why she is fighting.  Available, like everything else in the world, on Amazon.