Friday, October 31, 2008

f is for dream

Someone once told me that all the classic dream sequences begin with the letter F: fleeing, falling, feeding, flying, fighting and, uh, fornication. And then, of course, there's the one where you're back in school.

You forgot you signed up for a course and now it's the night before the final. You're studying, memorizing, working out equations, skimming through books, trying to cram in a semester's worth of sociobiology or 19th century literature.

Sometimes, it's already the day of the test and you can't open the door to the exam room or you find yourself scribbling gibberish in your blue book. You're cornered, panicking. F for futility. F for fear. F for knowing you're going to fail.

22 comments:

Aunt Becky said...

I don't know how many dreams I've had AFTER I've graduated wherein I have completely forgotten some class or another that I'd needed to graduate. And I can never remember WHERE it is, what it is about and have to go in and explain why I've not been present for the past 16 weeks.

I get them pretty often.

Lori said...

Makes me queasy just to think about it.

Now I am starting to have those sorts of dreams on behalf of my son. Hmmmm.... me thinks I might be a bit too invested in his academic life...

Tash said...

I remember during my way bad teaching experience, I had dreams of being arrested in the department hallway. Is there a synonym for persecution that starts with F?

I hate the ones where you're falling and you jerk straight awake.

Ya Chun said...

There's f*ck and then there's F*****CK!

Antigone said...

For you:

Motivation

Mrs. Spit said...

Calculus. Or Econometrics. Always.

Anonymous said...

I had those dreams all through graduate school. Then I started teaching, and now I have a new manifestation. I am teaching two classes, but I completely forget to show up to the second one. And the students are just sitting there until they finally decide I am not going to show up. And then it happens again. And again. And then I get fired.

F is for failing to show up and then getting fired?

Anonymous said...

Sleep well, Niobe?

k@lakly said...

I get the one where I am waiting to graduate and then I am told that I forgot to take a certain class and now I can't and I am running everywhere panicked trying to fix it...hmmm sounds a lot like my current state, f'ed up, yep that fits your 'f' theory.

Smiling said...

I have been too tired for dreams to be remembered... hope the F's you list out stay in your dreamworld and avoid the daylight as much as possible.

I used to have a dream that I forgot to drop a course - I signed up, but the complicated paperwork to drop it overwhelmed me and then I assumed I'd done it, but instead just got a big F on my grade slip at the end of the semester. Yeah, my big F's have to do with forgetting.

Furrow said...

I had one of those just a few weeks ago.

beagle said...

I'll take fornication for five hundred Alex.

Kami said...

Why do these dreams persist decades after school ends?

Magpie said...

F is also for fun and fancy and fresh and fluttery.

thirtysomething said...

Yeah, what magpie said. THINK HAPPY PLACE.

K @ ourboxofrain said...

I have had the exact forgetting dream Smiling used to have, and I have had it at least a half dozen times in the past year. Half the time it's a law school class with Betsy Bartholet; half the time I'm in college, usually having forgotten to drop a class in subject I never took. I've had the dream often enough that the mere thought of it can induce a bit of anxiety in waking hours when I know it makes no sense.

the dragonfly said...

I've been having a "failure" nightmare since just before my husband left for Iraq. I'm still afraid of being a mom by myself, afraid I'll screw up.

Unknown said...

My recurring Fail dream is rushing to get to the airport to make a plane and not having my clothes, passport or anything I need and having no time to go home to fetch them, not having what I need when the situation arrives. Go figure!

Rachael said...

Hello,

I just dropped in (from glow in the woods) to say hi and thank you for your blog and your wonderful writing. I wish you well.

Rach

niobe said...

Rach: Thank you. What a nice thing to say.

Anonymous said...

I've had the school dream a lot lately. In my dreams I've missed a class because I can't find my class schedule or I just plain forget to go, I couldn't open my school locker because I don't remember the combination, etc.

And I've had the airport dream recently like passingwindows. Better than the airport/airplane dreams I used to have when I would either witness horrific plane crashes or be on planes that would crash.

Anonymous said...

I have this dream often. I call it my anxiety dream. I'm back in high school most of the time, and I can't remember the combination of my locker -- or even where my locker is. It's the day of the test every time.

I also have the dream about going onstage and realizing that I have no clue what my lines are.

Unprepared dreams, maybe.

ciao,
rpm