November 2018: I just decided to grab a screenshot.
I was in a total rut back then. Job felt like groundhog day. Every morning, same traffic, same pointless meetings, same passive-aggressive boss. Nothing was moving. I wasn’t even looking for a new job, I was just sick of the one I had. I happened to stumble across some free Virgo career horoscope for the month. Not even a professional one, just some generic website. I read it and I scoffed. Absolute nonsense, I figured, but I was bored enough to try an experiment.
I didn’t believe in any of that astrology junk, but I saw the heading: “Major Career Shift Incoming.” I thought, screw it, let’s see how wrong this thing gets. I opened my phone, took a screenshot of the entire text, and shoved it deep into a forgotten folder on my cloud drive, labeled it something stupid like ‘Future Fail Prediction,’ and just forgot about it. I went straight back to the daily grind. That was my whole “practice” in Nov 2018 – a screenshot and a shrug.
I didn’t think about it again. For two years, I just kept my head down, pushing through that same toxic, stagnant environment. I showed up, I did the work, I collected the paycheck. My career trajectory was flatlining, but the bills were paid. Life outside work got messier. My car broke down, I moved apartments, my relationship hit a rough patch. That little horoscope screenshot was buried under hundreds of vacation pics and random meme dumps.
The Forgotten Prediction and the Dumpster Fire of 2021
Then came 2021. Everything I had been tolerating finally became a total dumpster fire. My manager, this guy who had been coasting for years, finally started getting heat from the VPs. Instead of improving, he just started pointing fingers, mostly at me. I was getting blamed for everything from server outages to the temperature in the office. This wasn’t just stress; it was blatant gaslighting. I started waking up at 3 AM with my stomach in knots. I was physically and mentally wrecked.
I fought back. I started documenting every email, every meeting, every stupid comment. I pushed the HR buttons. I demanded clear instructions. But it didn’t matter. The whole structure was rotten. After six months of constantly feeling like I was in a cage match, I realized I was just going to lose my mind if I stayed. One Tuesday morning, I walked in, and the guy started yelling about some TPS report he never asked for. I just snapped. I looked him dead in the eye, told him exactly where he could shove his report, and walked out. I didn’t even wait for security. I quit without a plan. Just straight up gone.
That immediate financial reality check was brutal. I went from being comfortably miserable to stress-out-of-my-mind broke in about three days. I applied for every job under the sun, took every interview, and got rejected from the ones I actually wanted. For three months, I was relying on unemployment and my rapidly dwindling savings. It felt like the lowest point. I was mad at myself for the way I quit, mad at my old boss, and mad at the whole system.
Digging Up the Receipts: The November 2018 Confession
It was maybe four months after I quit, I was starting a part-time contract gig just to keep the lights on, and I was scrolling through my old cloud drive trying to find a high-res picture of my dog. That’s when I ran across that stupid folder: ‘Future Fail Prediction.’ I clicked it open, and there it was: the November 2018 Virgo Career Horoscope screenshot.
I sat there on my couch, coffee getting cold, and read the damn thing for the first time in years. This is what it said, or something close to it:
-
Major Shift in Authority Figure: A challenging relationship with a higher-up will resolve, clearing your path.
-
Unexpected New Path Opens: A door you didn’t even know existed will be presented to you after you are forced to ditch the old road.
-
Financial Revaluation: Expect a pay increase, but only after a period of instability and self-doubt.
I looked back at the timeline.
-
The “challenging relationship” with the higher-up didn’t “resolve”—I forced the resolution by quitting and basically making him look like the a-hole he was, which probably got him eventually canned, I heard.
-
The “unexpected new path” was the contract gig, which quickly led to a full-time position with a startup I actually loved. That job wasn’t even open when I quit. I only found it because a friend of a friend saw me struggling and gave me a totally random tip.
-
The “financial revaluation” was the kicker. The new startup salary was 20% higher than the old, but yeah, it only came after that four months of total economic instability. I wouldn’t have even asked for that high a rate at the old place.
Did the horoscope “come true”? Honestly, who cares? The details were close enough to be creepy, but here’s the real realization I had:
The prediction didn’t make it happen. The stagnant job made me miserable, and my own breaking point made me quit. The prediction was just so vague that any major life shift—good or bad—could be shoehorned into those points. What I truly learned from that whole mess was that I had to be the one to drive the crisis. I took the screenshot and forgot it; I lived a bad few years; then I blew up the bad situation; and only then could I claim the outcome. It wasn’t written in the stars; I wrote the damn ending by burning the bridges I needed to burn. That’s the real career advice, folks. Stop waiting for the stars. Start making a scene.
