In the beginning, Buddha had invited all the animals in the kingdom to come before him. Unfortunately,
only twelve of all the animals he had invited came. Those who did, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon,
snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and the pig, were each granted a year named after them.
Those people born in the certain year of that animal would inherit those traits of that certain animal.
Many people know this to be the Chinese horoscope. However, the Chinese horoscope is not always
correct with everyone. Even though I was born in the year of the tiger, I have some, but not all of the
traits of the tiger.

In some ways, the tiger represents me well. For I am suspicious, because I do not always trust everyone
I meet, especially when I meet someone for the first time. Another trait I share with the tiger is
impatience. I am impatient, for I can never spend too much time on a certain task, since I want to move
on to other work that I could be doing. Lastly, I am rebellious, as I always question why family customs
must be done a certain way, and why it cannot be done another way. All of these traits I share in
common with the tiger. However, these are not all the traits the tiger has – there are still many other
traits that the tiger has but I do not.

Some of these traits that I do not have include that I am not adventurous. For I do not try something
new until I see someone else do it first. The second trait that I do not share with the tiger is that I am not
selfish. I do not take up everything in sight, and leave nothing for others; instead, I leave something
behind for others. Lastly, a trait that I do not have is the humanitarian instincts, because I do not care
that much for animals to be around me. These are traits that I do not share with the tiger.

As you can see, some of the traits of the tiger match my personality, and some do not. However, some
of these I would like to change, to become a better person. A quality that I would like to change would
be my impatience. If I get rid of my impatience, then I can take my time and to a better job at
homework, or other work. Being suspicious, is another trait I would like to get rid of. It would be better
to trust people and their actions, and then they can trust me. The last trait I would like to change is being
adventurous. Instead of not being adventuresome, I would like to be courageous and try to do
sports/events that I haven’t done before.

As a result the tiger and I have many characteristics in common, but we also have our differences. Some
qualities that we have in common are my suspicious personality, my impatience, and my rebelliousness.
But, some attributes that I do not have in common are my adventurousness, my selfishness, and I do not
have much humanitarian instincts. Some characteristics that I would like to change are my impatience,
my suspicious personality, and to be adventurous. However these animal traits portraits out lives, their
will always be a part of that animal’s personality within us.