The most frequent recurring dream that I have involves language classes. Most often, I dream that I am in high school and have not attended my German class in months. The final is approaching and I realize that not only do I not know the difference between wunderbar and toll (or whatever), but I can't even remember where the classroom is. Sometimes involves my college Spanish class. Regardless of the language, I am unable to explain how the hell I let the situation spin so far out of control. I feel like the biggest idiot, and my sense of impending failure is overwhelming. I wake up feeling more anxious than ever.
What particularly interests me is that this dream centers around foreign language. I definitely struggled with it in high school because I was absent so often, had a bad memory, and unable to distinguish between the sound "ihr" and "er," which is pretty critical in German. Thanks to a kind teacher, I did well. On the other hand, I battled with math far more ferociously than German for two out of three of the same reasons. I came extremely close to failing a semester each of geometry and trigonometry. (Final grades in the second semesters of both: D.) I'm surprised that my nightmares never are about forgetting the quadratic formula or how to calculate co-sine.
If you ever have a nervous drama that repeatedly unfolds in your sleep, I am curious to hear what the scenario is.
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for some reason, i often dream about my aunt and uncle's home across the street from my parents house. they no longer live there, but my unlle remodeled it himself. when he did, he built a secret compartment in a wall that no one was supposed to know about. in my dreams, it was an actual room. i often dream that i am stuck in there or hiding. it always weirds me out. i never actually looked into the secret space that i can recollect, i just knew it was there.
ReplyDeleteI occasionally dream that I'm in a swanky restaurant, and since I'm never anywhere swanky that part is stressful enough. But then I get up to get a second beer from the bar (okay...you have to fetch your own beer...how swanky can it be?), and I see myself in the backbar mirror, with my entire left breast out of my shirt.
ReplyDeleteAnd even as I'm tucking it back in and buttoning my shirt, I'm trying to remember how long I walked around like that. Since I left the house this morning? Since I arrived at the restaurant? Since I had the first beer?
And I want to leave, but I don't want to be a coward and run away...except I DO want to run away.
Blech! I hate the "social "mortification" dreams.
I don't really have dreams like that...
ReplyDeleteFor a while I dreamed I was still working at my pharmacy job, or that I didn't work there but I was there anyway. Working. Obviously those 5+ years had a big impact on my nightmares.....
The closest thing I have to nightmares are the dreams where I'm faced with situations surrounding my children, illness, custody fights, car accidents....those always have me waking up in a fit.
ReplyDeletethat's strange! i have a repetitive, stressful dream centered around school days too. or i used to - i seem to have forgotten it until i read your post.
ReplyDeletei used to keep wandering in the school corridors, searching for the library, or waiting for it to open, and in the process i'd look down at myself and discover that i'd forgotten to wear my skirt.
i'm profoundly grateful that the dream has no real basis, but with my ocd, even today i anyway check my dress twice before i leave home :)
I don't have anything reoccuring but last night I woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming that Edgar Renteria was trying to kill me.
ReplyDeleteI have the recurring school dream too. It is late in the semester and I have managed to miss every class of this one class - usually something difficult to catch up on like math or chemistry - and I now have to try and explain my absence to the teacher. The problem was, I just FORGOT to go to that class every week and have no real excuse.
ReplyDeleteI also dream about work in the same fashion. In the dream, I wake up, have a minor emergency, think "I should call my boss" forget to call in, then the day keeps getting later and later and I keep thinking "Oh, man, now it is so late this is going to look REALLY bad..."
I guess they are both performance anxiety dreams of the same sort.
I have two recurring dreams. I dream that I am still teaching, but the scenarios are different and not necessarily stressful. The second is about elementary school (grammar school in my day, and we liked it that way!),the school bus, and my poodle skirt. I dream that I am running to catch the bus at the end of the block, and I fall and make a hole in my skirt. I really did have a poodle skirt, and I think this traumatic event actually happened.
ReplyDeleteRemember your Horse's Patootie geometry teacher?! Sometimes I see a vanity license plate extolling "MR Geometry". It's got to be the big ego Horse's Patootie!
ReplyDelete