Man, let me tell you, sometimes you just stumble on stuff that makes you question everything. My whole process for this post started the same way all my productivity efforts start: me trying to clean out my digital hoarding mess. I was sitting here a couple of weeks ago, feeling totally burnt out from a massive client project that went sideways. I mean, totally sideways. I was stressed, questioning my whole career path since 2017, the last time I really felt like I knew what the hell I was doing.
I decided to finally tackle the 8,000 unorganized files in my Google Drive. A total swamp. I was just clicking through old junk, mostly screenshots of code I never used and recipes I never cooked. Then I hit a folder from mid-2017. Inside was just one image file labeled “VIRGO_CAREER_*.” I had completely forgotten I even saved it.
The Digging Begins: Finding the Oracle of 2017
I opened the thing. It was a screenshot of some generic-looking website predicting my career for July 2017. I had to know if it was accurate, not because I actually believe in astrology—I don’t—but because I needed a distraction from the current misery and maybe, just maybe, I could prove that the universe is just chaotic noise and not some predetermined narrative. So, I grabbed a coffee and got to work. My practice began right there: researching the content, validating the source, and then comparing it to five years of messy reality.
The first thing I did was try to find the original article. I wanted the full context. That was a pain in the butt. I spent a good hour clicking through dead links and old archive services, cursing the fact that I didn’t include the URL in the screenshot. Finally, I located the source, some site I’d never heard of before. I pulled up the original text for my sign, Virgo, specifically the career outlook. Here’s what that dusty old fortune-teller was predicting for my 2017 self:
- Strong Focus on Collaboration: It said I would need to put aside my solo work and partner up with someone new.
- A Financial Shock: Predicted an unexpected dip in income that would force a major decision.
- The Need for a Pivot: Said I was resisting a key new skill that would become critical by year-end.
- Conflict with Authority: Warned about a major disagreement with a boss or key client.
Comparing the BS to Reality: The Verdict Since July 2017
I mapped out my life since that day in July 2017 against those four points. My practice was to be brutally honest and not try to force a fit. I wrote down what actually happened on a notepad.
Collaboration? Hell no. I spent the rest of 2017 and most of 2018 trying to ditch my last collaborator because the guy was completely unreliable. I re-focused entirely on solo projects. So that was a big miss. The horoscope went left; I went right.
Financial Shock? This one got interesting. I recalled that August 2017 was the month I got totally stiffed by a major client. They simply vanished. It wasn’t a dip; it was a cliff. It absolutely forced a major decision—I switched my entire business structure after that loss. So that was spot-on, though I’m pretty sure any financial predictor could guess a freelancer is going to have a rough patch someday.
Pivot/New Skill? The horoscope said I needed to learn ‘X’ (I won’t name the actual skill, it’s irrelevant now). I resisted it until late 2018 when the industry practically beat me over the head with it. The damn prediction was right, but I was late. I only adopted it kicking and screaming. So, another hit, but only because I ignored the timing.
Conflict with Authority? This is the kicker, and the reason I even started this whole experiment. The horoscope warned about a major conflict in 2017. Guess what? Nothing happened then. Smooth sailing, actually. But right now, in 2025, I’m in the middle of a massive, ugly fight with a client that feels like a carbon copy of that prediction. It’s the kind of nasty, drawn-out battle that makes you want to pack it all in. I was so mad about this current situation that I was clearing out my digital files to burn off stress, which is how I stumbled into the old screenshot.
See, I only realized how much this current conflict was messing with me because I was busy checking the accuracy of a conflict that was supposed to happen back in 2017. The horoscope was wrong on the when but chillingly right on the what—it just moved the date way out. It’s like the universe just kept the conflict on the shelf for eight years until I was ready to face it. I was so ready to dismiss the whole thing, but the fact that the ‘conflict’ prediction is playing out now, during the very week I started digging this up, is totally weird.
The Takeaway: Fate, Fun, and Freelance Misery
My final assessment after completing this bizarre validation practice is that the 2017 horoscope was 50% garbage and 50% accurate, but mostly just generic enough to seem right if you squint. However, the act of going through the process—searching, comparing, and reflecting—that was the valuable part. It forced me to actually process what went wrong in my career path in the last few years and, more importantly, put my current meltdown into a strange historical context. Don’t believe in the stars, but maybe believe in the weird way old nonsense can force a new perspective. My practice is done, and my conclusion is: I need a vacation, not a reading.
