According to my calendar, the Internet and Panda Express (who gave us this celebratory puzzle) today is Chinese New Year. And this is the year of the Rat.

I was born in 1972.

I was born in January.

This makes me both a rat and a goat (Capricorn.)

It also makes me jealous.

I have always envied those born under the “cooler” signs. The dragons and tigers and horses. The bulls and lions and scorpions. The water, air and fire signs.

My signs are bound to the Earth. They are realistic and practical and ambitious. They are industrious and thrifty and diligent. They are predictable and safe and not (to me) very exciting.

They are also, I remind myself, not truth or science.

They might be written in the stars but they are not written in stone.

That’s life isn’t it?

We are all born under a certain sign, while the sun and moon reside in one of the twelve houses. We are dressed in pink or blue. We are the first born, middle child or baby. We are shameful bastards, replacement children, heirs to the throne. We are the anticipated sons or the unexpected daughters.

We have our mother’s eyes, our father’s temper and a whole lot of labels, expectations and pressure placed upon us.

There comes a point in life, when you pass over the horoscope section of the paper in search of the crossword puzzle. There comes a point when the place mat decorated with rats and dogs and pigs and monkeys at the local Chinese restaurant is barely glanced at, and when it is it is with a smile before you grab the hand of the boy sitting across the table from you and suggest running away to Mexico in a stolen car, something a practical rat would never do.

There comes a point when you realize that you are more than the sum of your parent’s mistakes.

There comes a point when you kick the sun and moon out of your house; shoo the rats and goats and all other self appointed mascots out as well.

This is the point where you realize that there may be stories written in the stars, but your story is not one of them.

This is when you realize that we are all water signs.

This is when you realize all of our stories are fluid, ever changing, and ours alone to write.