Man, 2016 was a rough one. Not just for me, but for a good buddy of mine, a real classic Pisces. He was just totally beat down, stuck in a dead-end job, feeling like a hamster on a wheel. Every time we grabbed a beer, it was the same story – the bosses were jerks, the work was draining, and he just couldn’t see a way out. His whole vibe was just heavy, you know? It got to me, honestly. I tried to offer advice, tell him to just push through, but nothing really landed. I could see it in his eyes, he was just counting down the days.
I’m not one for all that star-gazing stuff, never really paid it much mind. But by late 2016, as Christmas rolled around, I was pretty desperate to find something to tell him, anything to give him a little spark of hope. I was scrolling through some random forums, probably procrastinating, and I kept bumping into these “2017 career predictions” for different zodiac signs. My first thought was, “Nah, that’s just nonsense.” But then I thought, what if? What if there’s just a tiny nugget of something useful, something to lift his spirits?
So, I actually started digging. Yeah, me. I went down this rabbit hole, man. I remember my old aunt had some dusty books on astrology stashed away in her garage from like, the 70s. I actually went over there and asked to borrow a few. She just chuckled and handed them over. I hauled them back to my place, cracked ’em open, and just stared at these weird diagrams and symbols. It was like trying to read another language. All these “houses” and “aspects” and “retrogrades” – my head was spinning.
I would spend my evenings after work, sprawled out on the couch, laptop open, trying to cross-reference what these old books were saying with what I was finding online. It was a complete mess. One site would say one thing, another would contradict it. I felt like a detective, but with absolutely no idea what clues I was even looking for. I’d try to find out where Jupiter was heading in 2017, or what Saturn was up to for Pisces. I remember reading about “squares” and “trines” and thinking, “Is this a geometry lesson or something?” I didn’t get it, not really. But I kept at it.
My goal wasn’t to become some kind of expert, it was just to find a narrative, a story of potential, that I could share with my friend. Something that wasn’t just me saying, “Hey, things will get better!” because he’d heard that a hundred times. I wanted to tell him, “The stars are aligning for a change in your career path, man! Just hang in there!” Even if I had to manufacture it a bit from my confused research.
I started putting together little notes, scribbled on a pad. “Pisces… 2017… career… watch for new opportunities around April… potential for a pivot mid-year… communication skills gonna be key.” It was all very vague, very generic. But it was my generic. I really tried to synthesize all that confusing info into something coherent. I even looked up some basic personality traits for Pisces to try and tailor the “predictions” to him. “Your intuition will guide you,” I wrote, knowing he always prided himself on his gut feelings.
I remember one night, I stayed up late trying to understand something about Neptune’s influence. I almost gave up, just tossed the books aside. But then I pictured my friend’s face, that worn-out look. And I just kept pushing through, scanning page after page, website after website. I wasn’t looking for a definitive answer, more like a positive spin, a glimmer of light. I finally pieced together a few bullet points, a sort of ‘Pisces 2017 Career Outlook, Personal Edition.’ It wasn’t fancy, just a few sentences I typed up and printed out.
When I finally sat him down and showed him what I’d put together, he kind of squinted at it, then looked at me, a little smile playing on his lips. “You really did this?” he asked. I just shrugged. He read through it, slowly. I saw his shoulders relax a tiny bit. He didn’t say much about the predictions themselves, just thanked me for bothering. It wasn’t about the accuracy, I realized, it was about the effort, about someone actually caring enough to spend time trying to find hope for him.
Funnily enough, he did end up making a big career change in mid-2017. A completely different field, something he’d always wanted to do but never thought he could. Was it because of my clumsy “predictions”? Probably not directly. But I like to think that spark, that little bit of hope I tried to give him, maybe pushed him just a tiny bit towards taking that leap. I still don’t understand half of what I read in those books, and I’m still not really into astrology, but that whole experience taught me something important about just trying to show up for your friends, even if it means diving into stuff you don’t understand. And sometimes, just having someone believe in possibilities for you is all the prediction you need.
