Recently, my mom started watching the TV show “Long Island Medium,” and as a result, I now live in a household full of propaganda about psychics. I’ve also driven around Downers Grove enough to notice all of the neon store-fronts advertising palm and tarot card readings. And so, as any student avoiding homework would do, my journey to discover the unknown began about five minutes and a Google search later.

The first psychic I visited happened by accident. I was roaming Wicker Park when I walked directly into a sign advertising a $10 reading by the Astrology Boutique. The psychic inside would have said it was fate. After my reading, I would say it was…not. The reading was exactly as I expected– the room the size of a closet, complete with red velvet chairs and a lamp covered by a lace piece of fabric.

I was unable to record the reading because the phone would “disturb the energy” of the reading, yet, it was easy to remember the advice she gave me in five minutes. Apparently, someone from my past would reenter my love life in the winter and my career will remain stagnant. Interestingly enough, I am still employed at my part-time job as a cashier at Busy Bee Bakery, though I would not necessarily call that a ‘career.’

My second psychic was a scheduled appointment with Doctor Cynthia Zeki. Zeki, who has a PhD in Education, Linguistics, and Anthropology, now works as an “Intuitive” or a “New Energy Mediator.” She claims to read your energy field, or your “pure self,” as she calls it, and recommends courses of action that would align with your energy. She also serves as an almost-therapist, healing physical and emotional trauma through her readings.

After an hour-long talk with Zeki, I was sold. She brings a more scientific approach to the psychic field. I have never met or heard of her before the interview, yet, she said specific information about me that she never could have known prior. For example, she knew that I had a younger brother and that I was thinking of the color yellow. When I was talking to her about how I planned on going to college on the East Coast, she said she could see me in California. I had added Pepperdine, in Malibu, to my application list 20 minutes before our conversation. I had told no one.

My experience with psychics, although informative, taught me less about my spiritual energy and more about broadening my horizons. Initially, when I scheduled my interviews, I was a skeptic. But after witnessing the interesting ways that these people make their livelihoods, I feel a little ashamed I criticized them. Although I had one disappointing and one successful reading, the experience itself was more enlightening than I ever could have expected.