Maybe Edward Cullen is a Cancer

​I collect Cancer-rising friends the way I used to collect state quarters, with patience and appreciation as I quietly gawk at their beauty. I used to judge their sensitive exteriors, fiddling with my hair tie as I noticed the liquid forming in their eyes. ‘Oh god,’ I’d think. ‘They’re gonna want me to comfort them. I’m an Aquarius. I don’t know how to do that shit.’ As I’ve entered adulthood and befriended more and more Cancer-ascendants, I’ve come to understand them better than the 2nd grade version of myself who made my Cancer-rising grandmother cry at a cheerleading competition. They’re sensitive—yes. And it is not a quality they’re proud of. However, unlike a lot of Aquarians, they don’t judge others for spontaneous outbursts. As I become more in touch with my planets in Pisces, and endure breakup after breakup, and live in a world where Trader Joe’s discontinues their champagne vinaigrette, I find myself depending on my Cancer friends. I know that when I knock on Jordee’s door at 11PM after I’ve just been dumped, she’ll listen while I cry, make me toast, and force me to drink water. And two weeks later, she’ll check-in to repeat the process without complaint.

In romance, Cancers will shower their partners with love, through heart-shaped poems that appear on your desk after a Kurt Vonnegut quiz, or mid-day texts that simply state, “hey, you’re great.” These declarations are void of embarrassment, and performed with such confidence that they often make me wish I could go back in time and pop out of my mother two weeks after I did. If I were a Pisces, I wouldn’t hesitate over sending an “I miss you” text. Water signs don’t think; they feel. Well they think too. But feelings always come first, and why shouldn’t they?! They understand that it’s healthier to fully experience the emotion, than to let it boil under the surface until it comes out one morning while waiting in line at Coffee Fix. Because learning that your nearby breakfast establishment just ran out of E.T. bagels is an appropriate time to cry about that thing that upset you two weeks ago. 

Many Cancer people display their maternal nurturing qualities through physical touch. One minute you’ll confess your disappointment in your ability to find a link to the latest Rupaul, and the next second you’ll feel a hand gently rubbing your upper back. What’s that? Oh, it’s a Cancer! “It’s okay, we can try again tomorrow,” they coo. And have you ever received a hug from a double Cancer? It feels less like a hug, and more like a brief embrace of the souls. I’m not kidding! It’s akin to the moment in one of my favorite cinematic masterpieces, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I, when Bella finally becomes a vampire and she watches her life pass before her eyes through the inkwell filter while Iron & Wine plays softly in the background.

With that being said, I advise everyone to go hug a Cancer today. However, there is a dark side to the first of the water signs. All that love and emotion doesn’t come without its, sometimes irrational, dramatics. After all, Taylor Swift is a Cancer moon. But understanding that it usually comes from a place of raw, uninhibited emotion makes it difficult for us to fault them. They make excellent best friends. But maybe take caution before handing them a guitar and a country record deal.