When I was younger (and way more naive) I thought astrology and zodiac signs were so cool. Actually, let me rephrase that. I thought knowing about astrology made me look cool. I scribbled my sign all over my notes for class and even learned the constellation. I thought I was so trendy and hipster-y, until I looked up the actual characteristics of my sign, and I was beyond disappointed when I didn't relate to what I was already reading.

The culprit of my obsession was those trendy Facebook or Twitter posts that said "The signs as ______". I know you know the ones. "The signs as food", "The signs as Disney characters", "The signs as clothing brands". Every time I saw one of these pop up on my feed, I'd get so excited to see what I related to. Then I would send it out to all of my friends, and we all gawked over how on point it was.

But if you really think about it, any of the descriptions could apply to you if you wanted it to. We're tricked into thinking it matches our personalities because usually the description is so vague that it can relate to anyone, regardless of its relationship with your sign. It's easy to associate yourself with your sign description because you're told to. In a way, it's similar in concept to the placebo effect.

For example, I'm a Capricorn. My sign is said to be "responsible, disciplined, masters of self-control and make solid and realistic plans". Now, if you search in Google Images the phrase "The signs as..." a TON of images come up. One I found particularly interesting was "The signs as childhood cartoons". Apparently, the best suited cartoon for Capricorn is Ed, Edd and Eddy. Does that show scream responsibility and discipline to you? Yeah, I didn't think so.

media.giphy.com

Then there's other pictures I completely relate to, like "The signs as bitches". According to them, I'm a shy bitch. Yeah, you're right. But I'm also a hungry bitch (Taurus), an angry bitch (Aries) and basically every other one on the list—as I'm sure everyone else is as well. Does that mean I'm all of these signs? Of course not. What it probably means is someone slapped some generic adjectives to the word 'bitch' knowing that whoever was reading it would relate to it.

I bet if you had no prior knowledge about your sign, you'd read these and think "Oh my gosh, those are totally me, that's like so crazy!". In reality, however, they really don't make that much sense.

I'm not hating on zodiac signs and astrology as a whole. It can be pretty interesting when you have real facts. You might even discover a few things about yourself that you never really noticed before. All I'm saying is, you might want to delve deeper into the meaning of your sign before you get it tattooed permanently on your body, or start acting all high and mighty just because some random picture told you that you were the baddest bitch.