I was introduced to astrology when I was thirteen years old and I was hooked ever since. I used to have books on the zodiac and used to read magazines and newspapers just to check my horoscopes. Every year I learned more about the twelve signs through literature and interactions with people. I wanted to know the signs for every person that I was in close contact with, I was that interested (I won’t used the term obsessed, that’s a bit demeaning to me) in astrology. I think that the timing was perfect when I learned what astrology and the zodiac were because it was during a time of coming of age, when I was trying to make sense of things, especially of myself. I needed an explanation of my personality, and I felt at the time, astrology was my resource.
When I would get to college, I would learn about new resources that would not only help me figure out pieces of me but also how those pieces affect what I do, my emotions, who I interact with and how I interact with them.
During my undergraduate career, as a up and coming student leader, I was introduced to the True Colors assessment.
I enjoyed taking it because it helped me make sense of the leader that I was at the time and it was well aligned with what many of the student leaders were going through, which was learning about how to work with other student leaders with different personalities and methods of actions.
As my experience continued I was introduced to other self-assessments. During my first year of RA training, we all did StrengthsQuest and the second year I took the Myers Briggs Type Inventory. I found that StrengthsQuest to be my favorite assessment that I ever taken because unlike the True Colors and MBTI, which is made up of 16 personality types, StrengthsQuest is made up of thirty-four themes that comes with different combinations of five themes which for many of us are very different. I still look forward to the day when I meet someone with at least three of the same strengths that I have.
I recognize that astrology and these assessments are all different but I find what makes them all similar to each other is the impact that it has on one’s reflection of self. Depending on your sign or whatever results you may have, you are going to find yourself reflecting on its level of accuracy, or the descriptions of something that you do but can never put into words.
Of course I will also go forward and say that no one has to hold on to the descriptions of the zodiac sign, their color, their strengths, and their type as fact. There are a lot of people who discredit astrology and these assessments and that is perfectly fine. However if you are like someone like myself, you will truly believe in finding context to help you make sense of your identity, decision-making, and personal characteristics.
For any astronerds like myself, I find that the best astrology/zodiac blogs are on Tumblr, but I would also encourage you to make a birth chart because, your sun sign is just one piece of you but there are much more factors that play into your date of birth: http://alabe.com/freechart/
For those who are looking for more information on True Colors, StrengthsFinder, and the MBTI, here are some resources that I found:
True Colors: https://truecolorsintl.com/
StrengthsQuest: http://www.strengthsquest.com/home.aspx
MBTI: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/take-the-mbti-instrument/
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