In the Chinese Zodiac, 2020 is a Rat year.  Now, most people don’t have very nice associations with the Rat, since they bring to mind ideas like Bubonic Plague, Lab Rat, filth, vermin, rat traps, and “dirty rat”.  Rats are normally viewed as pests, and most of us would scream and run away if we saw a rat in our house.

However, in the Chinese zodiac, if you were born in a Rat year, you might show an aggressive attitude and an entrepreneurial spirit.  Rats might make a lot of money in their lives, and triumph over obstacles set in their way.

This is also a year divisible by ten, and most of us humans have a tendency to attribute special qualities to any year divisible by 10.  Perfect vision is denoted by 20/20, so there have been numerous references in various places this year to Vision.  I just came up with  this slogan:

2020, the Year of the Optometrist.

 Citizens, make that appointment with your local optometrist, and make sure your Vision is 20/20 this year!  I wonder if the eye-care community is milking this year for all it’s worth?

On a side note, in college I was a Psychology major, and I was required to take a class in Research Participation, which involved using rats. They looked very much like this:

My lab partner (who later became my husband) was actually afraid of the rats!  I wasn’t, and had no trouble handling them, so I handled the rats while he did the recording when they ran the maze.

Oh, yeah..Be sure to check out Ratburger.org.  It’s their year, too!

So rats aren’t always bad, and if you were born in a Year of the Rat, you might become the next Elon Musk or Bill Gates!  What Chinese Zodiac sign were you born under?