An albatross symbolizes a dead weight, or a burden (emotionally, obviously). The origin of this stems from the belief that killing an albatross would bring bad luck to sailors, most popularly from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, where an albatross is hung from the neck of a sailor who killed it. Some may consider obstacles they struggle to overcome to be an albatross, or even themselves if they feel that they are 'weighing others down', in a sense. Inversely though, albatrosses can also mean good luck, although this is used less commonly than the former.