I'm a Tauries

I’m the youngest of four kids, and by far the most stubborn of them all. My mom loves to joke that I was displaying my bullheadedness before I even graced the world with my presence, by refusing to actually come out. I was born 11 days late on the 21st of April. I don’t think anyone that knows me is surprised to learn that I’m a Taurus.

At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if the fact that I was meant to be an Aries, and was born on the Aries/Taurus cusp, plays into things as far as my personality is concerned. My understanding of the intricacies of the Zodiac is very limited so I can’t say for certain, but when I look at the descriptions of those two star signs, and take a good hard look at myself, it definitely appears that way.

Let’s start with Taurus, and more specifically let’s look at the weaknesses of a Taurus and just rip that bandaid right off. Quick and painful is what I say.

Astrology-zodiac-signs.com lists the weakness of a Taurus as stubborn, possessive, and uncompromising. I’ll go ahead and admit that all of those are true of me, but I’ll also make sure I don’t share this particular vocal.media piece with my siblings. ;)

At times my stubbornness has taken over to a point where there’s been a small part of me, off in a dark and distant corner, faintly whispering “Katie, you’re being a dickhead, stop it.” But then the rest of me is like “BUT IT’S THE PRINCIPLE OF IT!” and I silence my voice of reason and continue to dig my heels in anyway.

As far as possessive is concerned, for me this doesn’t apply to people, it’s more about my stuff. I’m particular in the way I do things and in the way I take care of my things, so I’m very hesitant to lend stuff to people. This also applies to food. I do NOT share food. Tapas is my worst nightmare.

Which brings us to uncompromising. I hate this one because despite everything I’ve said so far I’m actually a really friendly and caring person, so I don’t like to think of myself as unwilling to compromise ...but I am. I’m a very practical and systems driven person and there’s a reason I do things the way I do them. So you see (she says facetiously) it’s not that I’m uncompromising, it’s just that experience has shown that my way is the best way of doing it.

Okay, now that the hard part is done, let’s look at the strengths of a Taurus, which the site lists as: reliable, patient, practical, devoted, responsible, and stable.

As far as reliable, practical, devoted, and stable go, that’s a Texas-sized 10-4. I’m definitely all of those things. But patient and responsible? Those two are up for discussion.

It largely depends on the situation. For example, I tend to be very patient with other people. Unless of course they’re walking too slow, or talking to slow, or driving like an idiot.

But otherwise, I have all the patients in the world for people! It’s inanimate objects that really get my goat. Put me in front of a broken copier, don’t tell me it’s broken, grab some popcorn, and watch the show because I will flip. My. Shit.

And then there’s ‘responsible.’ It’s a word that I find means very different things to different people. I was called irresponsible by some when I decided to quit my job and do a one year working holiday visa in Australia. I had no real plan, no guarantee I’d have a job when I got back, no idea what I’d do when I got there, and I went anyway. To this day it’s the best decision I ever made, and I now live there and have an amazing career doing what I love. So if taking risks = not being responsible, then I’m happy to not be responsible.

Now, if we look at the weaknesses of the Aries, the first one listed is ‘impatient.’ ...Sound familiar? Then we have moody, short-tempered, impulsive, and aggressive. While I’m certainly impatient, I’m not short-tempered about it. So I don’t get into aggressive confrontations with other people. I’m not like that. I’m impatient and impulsive though, which often go hand in hand for me. I don’t always want to wait to ‘research’ something or know what I’m getting myself into, sometimes I just want to do it.

A great example of me being impulsive would be when my sister-in-law sent me a Facebook message that had a Groupon for a guided trek to Everest Base Camp and asked if I wanted to go. I thought “It’s a Groupon, how hard could it be?” and just bought it and went. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, how dangerous it actually was, or what sort of challenges I would face. Now, in this particular instance it worked out well and despite a few curve balls that got thrown my way it was my favorite trip I’ve ever taken. And still, in hindsight, not the smartest decision to go in blind and with literally zero forethought.

The strengths of the Aries I’m more on board with than the strengths of a Taurus. They’re listed as determined, confident, enthusiastic, optimistic, honest, and passionate. I see myself as determined, confident, and passionate, but I really relate to enthusiastic, optimistic, and honest.

I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I have a child-like enthusiasm about me. I’m about to be 36 and I was told that as recently as last month. I think that for the most part life is pretty awesome, and I get excited about it. Whose face doesn’t light up when they see a cute dog to pet?! Or when someone brings them ice cream?!

And as far as honesty is concerned, I’m physically incapable of lying. If I even think about telling a lie my face goes beat red and I freeze and just stop speaking altogether. I remember once when I was about 17 years old, my mom asked something… and to answer her honestly meant telling her I’d done something I knew she’d be heartbrokenly disappointed in me for. But, I told her anyway. And I’ll never forget how she looked almost stunned, and simply said “I can’t believe you just told me that. If I were you I would have lied. I’m so glad you told me” And in the end I didn’t get in trouble, and she wasn’t disappointed. Honesty really is the best policy.

So, in conclusion I think I have all the flaws of a Taurus, not so much the strengths, and I have many of the strengths of an Aries but not so much the faults. I’m a hybrid. I’m a Tauries.