Perhaps you'd think that to be true if you're into astronomy, or something similar, yet different: astrology. Perhaps some or even many of you scoff at it, dismissing it as wishful thinking, a bunch of superstitious mumbo-jumbo that inaccurately describes your personality.

My zodiac sign, Leo, didn't suit me so well. When I was a lot younger, maybe it was true; I used to be a lot more outgoing, so much more fearless than I am now. When I was in 6th grade, one of the people running the YMCA afterschool care that I attended said that he thought I was more of a Virgo than a Leo. Always eager to find explanations for things (and usually unimportant ones), I thought, "Well, that's why I was born late, I must've intuitively known that I was not supposed to be born in the time range of a Leo."

I do like these sorts of things; back when I was somewhere from 5-8 years old, I was quite meticulous about filling out a Barbie birthday planner with the birthdays of my friends and stuffed animals (stuffed animals especially, as I had an astonishing amount of them, which have since disappeared somewhere in a room upstairs). The planner also had a small page about what the people born in a certain month are generally like, as well as examples of famous people born in that month. I remember that when you were putting an entry for someone's birthday, you could circle one of two Zodiac signs, since each month will have two different ones in it (July has Cancer and Leo, August has Leo and Virgo, etc.). I never really understood why it mattered at the time, having not paid attention to the traits affiliated with each Zodiac sign.

Then there came a time where I pretty much forgot about the Western Zodiac. I very rarely read horoscopes; the only time when I hear mine is if I'm bored and I see them in my mom's newspaper. But late last year, my mom brought home a book which claims to have descriptions of people born on every day of the year.

I have since become immersed in reading this book when I have free time, and although I suppose I could use it to try and understand my friends better...It could be horribly far from the truth (I know some people who fit their birthday descriptions so well that it frightens me, but I don't think my birthday description was quite on the mark) and I would not want to rely on it to judge people. Rather, I look at the personalities of each day and I use them to help me shape my own OCs - original characters. It comes in handy because all of the birthday personalities have both strengths and weaknesses, and of course, it'd be boring to have characters that have no negative qualities.

Even more recently, I read somewhere (probably Time magazine) that the dates of the Western Zodiac signs are inaccurate, and now there is a "new" Western Zodiac with different dates and a 13th sign. I can't describe it very well, so search the Internet for it; click here for one place that has a little info about it. What it means for me is that I'm now actually a Cancer, not a Leo, which I think is more accurate, so I figure I'll go by that from now on.

Cancer: Sensitive, sometimes indecisive, moody
Leo: Ambitious, self-confident, basically a natural leader

Labels: birthday, book, cancer, change, characters, horoscope, leo, new, OC, original character, people, personality, planner, signs, star sign, stars, virgo, western, zodiac

Soon I'll be going on a school trip to Yosemite, where we will spend our days hiking and writing in our "journals". There's a lot of things that I needed to buy for this trip, because I'm not much of an outdoorsman. In fact, I've never really been camping out in a tent, seeing as my mom prefers civilization (and I guess I would really miss indoor plumbing, myself). But it'd still be nice to just try it, you know? For the sake of having that experience. It's not good to judge something you don't understand.

There's a whole lot of things that I needed to buy for Yosemite, including...
- A sleeping bag (I almost never sleep at other people's houses)
- Hiking boots
- Waterproof pants
- Waterproof jacket
- Snow gaiters (well, I guess I don't REALLY need them, but they're useful to have. They're like half pant legs that you can put on.)

There's probably a few more things that I have forgotten to mention. But anyways, I'll probably never use most of the things I bought for Yosemite after I come back. We don't really go hiking much in the first place (probably because I didn't like to do it...Too hot outside, I usually burned up my energy in the beginning through running, etc. Not that it isn't nice once in a while. In science camp back in fifth grade, we had the chance to hike alone, and it was really relaxing).

One of the things we needed to get was a bandana. Apparently, when we're out hiking, we'll stop to eat lunch, and we'll be using the bandanas as "plates" for our food. I set to thinking about bandanas.

Bandanas seem to have many uses. They can be used as hankerchiefs if you have allergies, you can wear them to look sort of like a cowboy (and you could also wear it if you're sick or people around you are sick as a kind of mask), you could put them on your head...I'm not sure if people usually do this, but somehow or other I got the notion that people who have gone through chemotherapy and thus lost their hair tend to wear bandanas to cover their heads.

To me, this gives the bandana a lot of meaning. The bandana is a sign of struggle, showing the battle between people and cancer and their fight to survive. It is a visible symbol of pain, fear, and desperation. At the same time, bandanas also show hope - a little hope that a person will pull through, fight off the cancer, and be able to resume living their life again. Maybe things will never be the same. Perhaps the scars, physical and mental, will always be there. But it's something precious, getting to have a second chance.

Bandanas are pretty cheap to get, but they're not necessarily useless. I hope you're paying attention things and what kind of purpose they really serve. I guess that's what teachers mean when they're saying, "You should ask under the surface questions!" You should still pay attention at school, even if you find it boring, because you never know, something important might be said.

My history teacher sometimes tells us stories, such as about having to transport a cake, being a valet, gambling in Las Vegas, and so on. He says we should pay attention since there is something to be learned from his stories; they're not just for entertainment. I think I might want to be a teacher sometime.

Here are some of my possible careers:
- Writer (well, that may have to be just something I do in my free time, what with the "starving artists" thing)
- Photographer (again, only if I can make a living off of it. Nowadays lots of people have huge Nikon or Canon black cameras)
- Interior designer or travel show host (too bad those jobs aren't that common)
- Ice cream shop owner (or some other kind of shop, with yummy food XD)
- Fashion designer (it'd be fun to come up with things, and I'd like to steer people away from those really low colors and tight clothing. x_x )

Labels: bandana, camping, cancer, career, chance, chemotherapy, future, hiking, hope, learn, outdoor, science camp, shopping, sign, significance, struggle, symbol, trip, useful, yosemite

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