In elementary school, when my friends and I played Greek gods and goddesses, I was assigned Aphrodite. Instantly, I embraced the ultra-feminine, bratty persona. In middle school, when I learned from an all-knowing Buzzfeed quiz that my Harry Potter house was Slytherin, I then tried to embody that morally gray, self-serving attitude. Finally, in high school, upon the revelation that I was a Scorpio sun, I became the epitome of Scorpio: mysterious, opinionated, and perhaps a little too blunt.<\/p>\r\n
However, astrology became more than a hobby for me. I transitioned from watching videos of \"manifest under the new moon for money, growth, and love\" to reading Chris Brennan\u2019s Hellenistic Astrology<\/i>. I studied the divinatory language characterizing people through an intricate system, like a warped clock with a hand for each celestial body orbiting Earth. I reveled in these games of association, recognizing art in the symbolism while allowing fragments of my identity to shift as frequently as the moon waxes and wanes. There is a universe of ever-changing yet patterned movement in everyone, and astrology provides a language to interpret it.<\/p>\r\n
Although often dismissed as pseudoscience, astrology can uncover new facets of identity. For example, when I complimented my friend Jenny and praised the way her attention felt like a warm spotlight, she found pride in identifying with her Leo sun.<\/p>\r\n
Then, during my sophomore trip to the Yucatan, I met Lucia, a British tour guide in training. As we marveled at an intricate astrological clock outside the Mexican National Museum of History, recognizing her astrological expertise, I asked her for a birth chart reading and was shocked to hear her say I was a Libra sun, not Scorpio. My whole life, I\u2019d identified with the assertive conviction of a Scorpio sun, but in Lucia\u2019s Vedic interpretation, this placement is Libra: group-oriented and balanced. Instead of renouncing my belief in astrology, though, I took it as proof of human behavior\u2019s contradictory nature. I call it Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s astrology<\/i>: everyone has potential to actualize different yet simultaneous versions of themselves.<\/p>\r\n
What started as a passion for astrology soon evolved into a deeper quest to understand people. Last year, in my AP research project on the effect of religiosity on social conformity, I traversed psychological concepts like mental conviction, discovering that extremist opinions originate from a need to soothe the mental distress of uncertainty. I could finally explain my childhood tendency to caricaturize myself.<\/p>\r\n
Growing up, all children wrestle with varying degrees of identity crisis, and I was no exception. My solution was to align myself with familiar character tropes. If I was Miss Aphrodite, then I couldn\u2019t run around playing kickball. If I was Miss Scorpio, I had to be callous, or else I wouldn\u2019t know who I was. Though I didn\u2019t realize it then, treating myself like an archetype as opposed to a complex, multifaceted person stunted my growth.<\/p>\r\n
By the time I wrote my 20-page paper, I\u2019d read Pyszczynski and Rothschild\u2019s Psychological Features of Extreme Political Ideology<\/i> so many times and studied confirmation bias, conformity, and cognitive dissonance so much that I could no longer see the world in binaries. Instead, I attempt to refine my patterns of behavior and thought by accepting potential incongruencies between my mind and reality. I think with logic, but not to invalidate emotion. I act with conviction, but not with blind certainty. It was astrology that taught me this balancing act was possible, introducing me to the essence of psychology: the recognition of beautiful paradoxes and complexities in myself and others.<\/p>\r\n
My practice of astrology opened a new lens of interpreting a universe of perpetual change. Human nature cannot be limited to a Myers-Briggs personality or Enneagram number. So when I strive to understand others, I will keep in perspective their whole chart, not only one planet.<\/p>","what_to_notice":[{"notice_title":"Coining Original Interdisciplinary Concepts","notice_text":"The applicant bridges physics and personality theory by coining the phrase \"Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s astrology.\" This metaphor illustrates how individuals possess contradictory, simultaneous potential states, demonstrating high-level conceptual thinking and intellectual vitality."},{"notice_title":"Connecting Personal Curiosity to Academic Research","notice_text":"The essay seamlessly transitions from an early fascination with personality tropes to formal high school AP Research on social conformity, cognitive dissonance, and extremity. This shows admissions officers that her personal interests directly fuel her scholarly investigation."}],"essay_credit":"","essay_source_name":"Breakdown & commentary shared by ElevatEd School","essay_source_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m1yanVEqq98&feature=youtu.be","essay_source_note":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"befello-avatar":false,"befello-avatar-sm":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/?author=0"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story In elementary school, when my friends and I played Greek gods and goddesses, I was assigned Aphrodite. Instantly, I embraced the ultra-feminine, bratty…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/essay\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/essay\/579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581,"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/essay\/579\/revisions\/581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_programme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fessay_programme&post=579"},{"taxonomy":"essay_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.befello.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fessay_topic&post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}