Recently I've been getting more and more into horoscopes, enough that I've downloaded an app that allows me to read my birth chart, get daily updates, read my taro cards, and friend people I know to see how compatible I am with them. It's a really cool app, and though I use it everyday, I still don't know where I stand on the whole horoscope thing. I have some friends who hardcore believe in every aspect of them, I have other friends who think it's all BS, and then the majority of people I talk to are somewhere in between. I guess I'd say that's where I fall.

I like to indulge in and read horoscopes because I think they are extremely interesting, not just in how accurate they are but also in the relationship and influence they have over the mind and personal action. I do think zodiac signs can generally describe and apply to people fairly well, though I also think it's entirely possible – and pretty common – to have traits that are often used to describe other signs. I think that's how I feel about horoscopes too. Honestly, I think it depends on where you're sourcing your horoscope (stay in school, kids, am I right?), as some are (in my humble opinion) worse than Cosmopolitan weight loss articles. Some, on the other hand, are really, what I see as, quite specific. Oftentimes I read my horoscope, and because I'm an anxious person, I get more anxious about trying to understand what it means, if it's been true, if it's coming true, if it'll be true, if it is already true, and usually I find that I do think it's pretty applicable to my current life. Literally I just read an article on Refinery29 outlining my June horoscope, and I was astounded by how accurate I think it is – and that's not even the high quality app I was just raving about.

Though I think horoscopes can be fun and thought provoking, what I've found by reading mine pretty religiously these past few weeks is that, one, while right now I'm aboard the “I-think-these-have-some-merit" train, I'm also constantly thinking about what reading a prediction does in terms of giving me the “power" to control my own destiny. Ew. Writing that last part sounds so weird. By “controlling my own destiny" I guess I simply mean – when I read a part of my horoscope I like, am I more encouraged to act in a way that will logically help me achieve that goal, and when I read something I don't like, do I become more pessimistic or willing to expect a negative outcome?

Recently lots of people in my life have been giving me the advice to go after what I want and take action, and I suppose it's prompted me to question how much control I have over things. It almost goes back to the lesson of learning that there are only some things you can control, and those “some things" is yourself – your actions, behaviors, attitudes, mindsets, everything about yourself you have control over, and the rest is well, a crap shoot (for lack of a better term).

So I guess that's why I'm a proponent for horoscopes right now. I think they all at once marry the control an individual has over themselves with the craziness and unexpected nature of the surrounding world. Horoscopes invite you to do certain things or think in certain ways or approach life with a certain attitude, and they never tell you explicitly why or what's coming specifically, and that's because they can't. Life happens, and you sort of have to roll with the punches. That's what I'm learning I think. My horoscope reading, well true and accurate or not, has inspired me to approach my life with the understanding of balance in relation to control, and that is something I need to learn and practice in all aspects of my life. So maybe read your horoscope, and if you don't like it, change it?