Dreams About School

One recurring theme in my dreams, is that I'm still in High School, or Boarding School, or Sleepaway Camp. In these dreams, I'm always 18, or, more often, I'm way over 18 years old and have chosen to stay and keep repeating the last year(s). I haven't been left behind. I just decided to keep taking more and more classes there instead of going to college. And in these dreams, it seems that's allowed.

I'm not sure why I choose to do that in these dreams. In the case of boarding school and camp it's because I liked it there. In the case of regular high school, I have no idea why I'd do that! I would NEVER EVER EVER want to go back to High School! Lol! So WHY do I choose to keep repeating those years in these dreams? Mastery maybe? Less pressure? Because I do always think to myself that since (in the dream) I'm at least 10 years past graduating age and credits, I've already done all I need to graduate, so whatever happens really doesn't matter that much. -Oh, and I should point out that the High School in my dreams is not my real life old high school. It's some generic large school with classes, students and teachers that I don't know.

The other recurring theme in these dreams is that, very often, I've missed a lot of classes. So much so that I can't remember which classes are at which day and time. Then, if I figure out what class I have next, I don't remember exactly where the classroom is. -This is often very stressful! Because in the dream I DO want to go to class but I have a hard time figuring out which class I should be going to and where and when the heck it is, even though I really want to attend! -And it's always because I've missed several and have not established a routine with them, which, in the dream, I want to do, but it's difficult when I keep repeating the pattern of missing the class because I can't remember where it meets or where it's held!

Then there's the homework. In these dreams, needless to say, due to missing so much, I'm often super behind in my work and I know that I'm totally unprepared. That adds to the anxiety of trying to attend the class (that I'm probably late for because I didn't know when it met, and then couldn't find, and THEN knew I didn't have the work for!) Usually the representative class I'm most behind in is something with a boring text that requires lots of reading.

Often I tell myself to just STOP, and to intentionally skip the class this time. To use that time instead to do some marathon reading and catch up so that the next time I'll be completely caught up and it won't matter how many classes I missed. I plan to really check my schedule and show up on time and fully caught up for the next class. It seems like a better use of my time to do this instead of dealing with the stress of showing up late and unprepared. (Though part of me always thinks -Who cares if it's late or if there's a test I will 100% fail and can't even fake my way through because I never even opened the book at all! Just GET THERE this time!)

I have these dreams ALL THE TIME. The places change, but the themes are the same. It's very familiar to me and I'm often thinking "Geeze AGAIN???" I can't correlate it to anything in my real life. Certainly nothing identical to it, but not even anything similar or symbolically similar. Not even in the past! Except that sure I might like to be in camp or boarding school, but, er... not as the world's oldest camper! Lol! Maybe if I were that age again, but in these dreams I'm usually not.

Anyway, I'm writing about this because a few months ago I had "one of those dreams" BUT.... I'd done my homework! (I know! Imagine that?) and when I tried to think of what class came next, I had a moment of wondering if I'd be able to remember (because of the other dreams) and then realized I DID know which class was next. I knew where the classes were and I was doing the work in all of them. And... get this... I THINK I was in COLLEGE! (In real life, I've been through college, but never in these darned dreams!)

I still have NO idea what this correlates to in my real life or why I had a different dream a few months ago, but I was SO glad! Lol! I'm hoping this trend continues! I did stop to reflect on this at one point during the dream and explained to myself that this "term" was going better because I had good classes and there weren't any bad ones there or any that I didn't like, and that must be why I was going to all of them and doing the work. -Nice logic, but I still can't correlate that to anything in my real life!

I've had a few more dreams like that since then, and yet another one last night. Once again, I was IN COLLEGE (hurray!!!) and knew the material and where my classroom was. Though I had some trouble getting to it due to

1. a locked building
2. a class party
3. security guards I conned my way past
4. being taken to the wrong floor a level below that was very very leaky

but eventually I got to class. Except I didn't have any paper or a pen. -That happens in these dreams sometimes too. In class... no paper or pen. At all! Then I try to gather up any bits of scrap paper or napkins or wrappers that I can find and/or I borrow from someone.

At this rate, I figure I might be out of "dream school" by the time I'm 80. Who knows? Maybe I'll get a few doctorates by then.

(Anybody else dreaming about schools or camp?)