Rinesa Kabashi photo editor
Desiree Gonzalez staff writer
A little girl took a visit to her aunt’s house and found a book on her aunt’s bookshelf that she would read and be very passionate about.
As she was flipping through the pages from a book about zodiac signs, she fell in love with the pictures and junior Gabriella Hassid is now known as The Astrology girl. To be educated in the topic she had to do her research and learn about it.
“I just always remember checking out a bunch of books and every time I go to the bookstore just going straight into the astrology section. Always flipping through the pages, taking pictures, buying a couple of books and honestly just asking around,” Hassid said.
In addition to doing textual research, Hassid also learned more about astrology through analyzing people’s characteristics.
“When I was in middle school, I just started to talk to people more and find out their signs. I didn’t know much about what they meant at the time. If I wanted to get to know, let’s say, a boy I had a crush on…I didn’t want to talk to him, but I still wanted to know about him, I would just go on the Internet and look up about his sign,” Hassid said.
Astrology has even had an effect on the way Hassid thinks when she first meets someone. The way that Hassid thinks when she first meets someone is different from others.
“One of the first things I’ll ask is what their zodiac sign is. Right off the bat, I know if we’re gonna be compatible and if the conversation is gonna lead to a friendship or if it’s just not gonna work out,” Hassid said. “If I ask them what their sign is, I can kind of understand where they’re coming from when they say certain things. It also helps me learn for the future if I know that person.”
Reading her horoscope every day has made her more accepting of bad days.
“There’s times when I have a bad day. Things just aren’t working out for me. I’ll go home and I read my horoscope. It says that the day wasn’t gonna be good or something bad has happened. That’s almost comforting to me because it tells me that this would have happened anyway. It was written in the stars for today to not turn out well and that’s okay. It wasn’t in my control and everything is meant to be,” Hassid said. “The stars and the planets will move as they please and a lot of it is out of our hands. If something bad happens in my day, it is kind of comforting to know that it’s not really my fault. It was meant to be.”
One of Hassid’s friends understands her beliefs but also has his own opinion on it.
“I think conceptually in the modern world, astrology has kind of turned into something that people can look to for fun and I personally partake in that too,” junior Jibran Kabani said. “I think lining up your qualities with that of your astrological persona is good fun, but when it comes to people actually believing the outcome of their day and or life is dependent on the positing of starts…I think that’s kinda silly.”
Even though Hassid is very set on her beliefs with astrology, she understands that other people might not be.
“I get it because there’s always gonna be skeptics,” Hassid said. “I think that unless you really have experienced it on your own and seen the truth behind it and really seen that play out and see how compatible you are  with someone, until you really look into it and kind of try to apply it to your own life, you might not understand it.”