So, I have this reoccuring dream
(What's more interesting than hearing someone else tell you ALL about a dream they had, right? So, so interesting)
Basically, in my dream I am still in school and it is the end of last semester of my senior year and I have pretty much just NOT been going to class at all. When it comes time to take my finals…I don’t even know what room to go to because I have no idea where the classroom is. So I am wandering around the halls looking for the class, trying to go take the final for a class I have never even been to. Of course I never find it, thus I fail and don’t graduate.
It seems brief when I describe it, but when I am dreaming it, it seems like it lasts FOREVER.
And I have this dream a few times a month (at least) and every time I wake up freaked the F out and I realize thank god it’s a dream. And I am never more relieved in life than I am at that moment.
And maybe if I were anyone else I would want to interpret that dream, and say shizz about how maybe it means I am stressed about work, or worried about reaching my goals.
But, sorry Dream Dictionary That I Bought When I was In Seventeen, that is not what it is.
Because you see, basically? This all happened to me in real life (Kind of)
My freshman year of college I went to Umass Amherest. I lived in Southwest, in a tower and if you are familiar with Umass at all then you will know that I probably attended less class in that year than other people who are not even enrolled in college attend. But I did cram about 4 years of hard partying in that one year, let me tell you. After first semester I was put, for the first time in my life, on academic probation. I thought a 1.8 was mighty fine considering I only went to my Communications class three times. But apparently? Not so much,
Unfortunately second semester was even more outrareous that first semester: The weekend began on Thursday and ended on Tuesday, crazy parties any day of the week, any time of day. Unlimited access to alcohol via all of our over 21 friends. It was the funnest time ever. Until midterms came around again and I went to take my poli sci exam. You see, at Umass the seminar classes are so huge that they are taught in an auditorium and the professor uses a mic. They don’t take attendance, but you have a “discussion” class led by a TA every week that you are required to attend. Of course I did not believe that “you” applied to me and so I never (ever) went to the discussion portion. I could not even tell you where it was held, or who my TA was.
This would prove to be my fatal flaw, since at the beginning of the exam, my professor told us that when we were finished we were to hand it in to our T.A. I looked up, and there were SIX T.A.'s sitting in the front of the auditorium. SIX!
I had not the slightest clue who my T.A. was which presented a problem with handing in my exam. When I was finished, I tried to figure out who looked like an “Alyssa’ (I knew her name at least) and, after walking in between the lot of them for a minute, took a shot in the dark and handed it to the most Alyssa-esque looking girl.
“Um, you have to give this to YOUR T.A.” she said when I handed it in, obviously not knowing me since we had never met.
“Uh huh, yeah THANKS!” I said and ran right the helll out of there.
We were supposed to attend a discussion class later in the week to get our papers back but of course I had no idea where to go and so never got my midterm back. In the end I got an F in the class, which I am sure I deserved and later that semester realized that while I excelled in the art of party hopping and peppermint patty shots, if I was ever to make a go of this college deal I would have do to so at another institution. So I ended up transferring to UMASS Boston where I turned my academic life around and struck the balance between drinking like Faulkener and writing a kickass paper on him as well.
But that single terrifying moment of realizing how stupid I had been? Not my best time. I'm so glad I am not too psyched to relive it a few times a month.
But that feeling of a relief when I wake up? Almost makes it worth it.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
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8 comments:
Freakishly enough, I've had the EXACT same dream!!! I was having them all the time a couple years after I graduated from RISD.
Except I didn't actually live through what you did. I did graduate on time etc.
I think it means something else. I'll investigate...
Holy @*#*. See - that's why I Did NOT go to UMASS. I will never forget going to a party on Frat Row right after high school and, after falling down the stairs, yeah - UMASS and I didn't get along too well - hence why I went to WNEC & Bay Path.
College is for learning - novel idea - I thought it was for getting the partying out of our system before we had to embark in the real world. And for us to work on "social skills". Boy was I wrong.
Thanks for bringing back the UMASS memories *LOL* and at least you feel the relief upon waking. And you left UMASS Amherst... ;)
ya! i think most people who went to school around here have a good umass story. i wish my friend jill was reading this so she could tell the story about coming to visit me for my birthday, which ended in a massive cake fight in the dorm hallway at 4AM. good times.
aaah, i think we all have similar dreams. in mine, i usually get to class and realize i didn't do some 20-page paper that was due... and even though i am relieved when i wake up, i'm still always really pissed that i had to suffer through a dream like that!
In grad school, near the end of the semester, I woke up one morning absolutely convinced that I'd skipped a class the entire year. I wasn't sure what class or why, but I just knew I'd done it.
14 years later, I still wake up with that dream. But it's a lot easier to get over now :)
oh umass. my freshman year was spent on the 18th floor of coolidge. i know that no apartment that i ever have from here on in will have that kind of a view!
sure, it was a cinderblock box with a snoring roommate, but the sightline from my desk chair was pretty amazing.
the fire drills, however - those i don't mind living without.
i lived in kennedy!
can i assume you had a corner room and not a "z room"?
i loved living in a tower, but you are right the fire drills were a beast. and there was no way in hell i was walking back up to the 18th floor.
OMG, I have the same dream too! Oddly, it's more like I'm halfway through the semester, and all of a sudden I realize I just "forgot" about a class on my schedule. In my dream, I am then walking down the hallways, terrified because I don't even know where the class is. Sheer panic ensues.
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