Your Most Underappreciated Quality, Based on Your Birth Month
April
People get so hung up on your intensity, that they forget to peer behind the curtain. Your obstinance in the face of a challenge and never-give-up attitude can exhaust others who lack your mental tenacity. Sometimes people want to sleep in on a weekend. Sometimes people want a cheat day. And your commitments astound everyone around you. They make people think of you on this super-human pedestal because it’s normal to flake. Normal to half-ass things. Normal to quit before you’ve reached your actual limits. If only they could see that the same level of dedication extends to their relationship with you as well. How you never bail. Never let them down. Never settle for less than 100%.
May
Generosity.
You’re such a big spender, that people seem to remember how expensive the restaurant was but forget how you paid the check when no one was looking. Your reputation is for always being over the top, which others are intimidated to keep up with at times. It comes down to your belief that people deserve the best you can give, that the finer details, those aesthetic touches that make a bill add up, will really make a difference. Will turn an experience into a lifelong memory. Will have the power to produce super-sized emotions. You’re never comparing what you have to others or expecting something in return. You truly just want to share what you have with the ones you love.
June
Informed.
You’re the type to read up on every single candidate before your local elections, and it can be exasperating to watch you teeter back and forth in indecisiveness. You read every Yelp review before making a reservation. Check the reviews of every movie before buying tickets. Sometimes the people around you want a little spontaneity. Sometimes they don’t want to know what to expect. But when something breaks, when you get lost, when someone needs help, you’re prepared. You know how to stay calm and tackle the problem head on. You inform yourself so you can make the right calls, the right decisions, at the moment it matters most. And if people can’t understand that takes time, they’ll appreciate it when they benefit from the fruits of your labor.
July
Stoicism.
Sometimes people want you to react. They want to see you get mad, lash out, burst into tears. They want your emotional response to mimic their own. But you know how to stay level-headed. You know how to keep your cool in the face of some pretty daunting adversity. What people fail to realize is that your reaction isn’t an absence of emotion but a presence of perspective. Your past experiences have colored the way you face the present. You’re able to recall similar scenarios that came to a happy conclusion. You’re able to remember things that were harder, more intense, maybe even traumatic, and draw reassurance from your ability to come out the other side in one piece. If you did it then, you can certainly do it now under more favorable conditions.
August
Honesty.
You have no filter, and are always saying what’s on your mind the second a thought materializes in your brain. There’s no mystery with you. No trying to guess what your opinion is or where you stand. Sometimes people won’t like the answer, but what the world doesn’t appreciate is that this is the only way of operating you’ve found to work for you. A necessary evil for someone with a social life as vast as yours. To keep up with that many people, to be welcome in that many circles, you need to be honest. Secrets and lies are the source of petty drama, and you just want to have a good time. You have no beef with anyone because you address everything head on in the moment and nip it before giving any weird vibes a chance to fester.
September
Independence.
You get a lot of flack for being a perfectionist, because people think you’re just looking for validation, looking to prove how much better you are. You can’t just be bothered to go to your nearest coffee house for a croissant like the rest of us. Noooo, you have to spend hours folding and refolding that puff pastry by hand and timing your bake to finish when the natural light in your kitchen is best for food styling. You don’t even get crumbs everywhere while you’re eating this work of art. But underneath that annoyingly capable exterior is your commitment to taking care of yourself. To learning how to provide for yourself, how to fix your own problems.
October
High-brow.
People think you can be a little too snobbish for your own good. You’re not exactly riding any pop culture bandwagon. It can be intimidating to make conversation with you when it’s so easy to feel out of one’s league. But what people don’t understand is that your tastes are built to last. You’re not going to invest yourself in trends that come and go, you prefer to spend your time and energy engaging in things that can stand the test of time. So maybe you can’t contribute to the office banter about the latest Housewives episode, but one day you’re going to be the cool aunt or uncle who shares their poetry and record collection with a younger generation. For you, the deeper the content, the deeper the connections you build over it.
November
Playing the long game.
No one wants to get on your bad side. They know your retaliation is akin to a demi-glace. With enough time, heat, and patience, your anger will reduce down to the most perfect, concentrated masterpiece. To you, it’s worth every second just for that one moment where you get to serve your revenge piping hot on a platter. What people don’t realize is that this forward-focused mentality also produces extreme loyalties. You don’t waste your time on anyone or anything that you don’t see serious future potential with. You won’t even bother with first dates or remembering birthdays unless you’re already in it for the long haul. Once people know they’re on your good side, they get to enjoy all the benefits of your protection. That same wrath now shields them from anyone who may try to cross them.
December
Curiosity.
You ask a lot of questions. Too many for people’s comfort, especially when you first meet them. You love to dive right in with the shyest person in the room and try to get right at the heart of who they are and what they’re feeling. It can feel a little violating at times. In a professional setting, you’re not afraid to poke holes in small details where others just need to focus on a bigger unfinished picture. What people fail to appreciate is your curiosity emerges from a desire to truly understand people and things for exactly what they are. Ignorance is your greatest fear, because you know knowledge is the source of compassion and connection.
January
Patience.
Sometimes you give people too much space, too much freedom. They feel like you’re not invested enough, when really you’re just being courteous. Giving others the same time you appreciate when it comes to cooling down from an argument, taking space to figure out your feelings, or just recharge your batteries. You know every important thing in life takes time and you are willing to respect others. You are willing to wait for them. You are looking for true investments, not instant gratification or get rich quick schemes. In a world of ever shrinking attention spans, you are a novel with a fully formed plot, getting flack for not fitting into a Tik-Tok.
February
Humanitarianism.
You don’t look away from some of the world’s most grotesque subjects. You witness, you process, you continue to insist on change, even when everyone around you has given up, has decided to believe that there is no answer to the most important problems. People like to throw out the term social justice warrior like it’s an insult. Like you are some overly-sensitive snowflake fighting for causes others think the world just needs to get over. Mostly because they’re not affected directly by any of them. But when an issue comes straight to someone’s doorstep and you are there to help, have been there to help all along, people are going to change their tune and thank their lucky stars you haven’t given up.
March
Emotional capacity.
If everyone has an emotional bucket with a limit that when surpassed causes everything to overflow, yours, is a heavy duty Yeti cooler. You’re built to hold much more than a day’s worth at a time. To preserve and transport feelings wherever life takes you. Sometimes people don’t appreciate your ability to be working through multiple conflicting feelings at the same time. They don’t recognize that this emotional muscle memory you’ve built up allows you to do the same with others. To acknowledge and understand the many factors at play that coalesce into a general feeling or emotional state. When other’s buckets have long reached their limit, you are there to sit in the mess, often with the words to describe the overwhelming.