I Had A Funny Scary Awful--and Very Common--dream
A lot of adults dream the dream where you are back in school and about to take a test for which you are unprepared. This is a variation on that kind of dream.
I had this dream for years over and over again every three or four months:
I am living with my mother but I am an adult. (In real life I left home at the age of 18).
One day a letter comes from a bureaucratic office of the state of California (my home state). It says something like this:
Dear Citizen of California:
After an in-depth background check on your life, you have been designated a complete and total failure as a human being. As a result, any certificates for educational achievement have been withdrawn by court order.
Sincerely,
The State of California
[This letter varied a little from one dream to another...But you get the idea].
In the dream, I am shocked and puzzled. I am trying to figure out what it means when my mother comes into the room, asks me about the letter in an interrogating tone, and then, not knowing what to say, as I hesitate to answer, she grabs it out of my hands and reads it.
She is furious.
"You are no longer a graduate!!! You have lost your high school diploma!!!" She screams at me. "Your whole life has just gone down the drain!!!"
I try to argue with her. I point out that I have never heard of anyone receiving such a letter. And, even if it means I no longer have a high school diploma, that cannot be important because, after all, I have several college degrees and a teaching credential.
She roars at me. "Don't you get it?!!! Those degrees are no good now!!! Your college degrees are invalid!!! You have no high school diploma,so your college degrees and teaching credential have been cancelled!!!"
In some versions of the dream, I believe her right away and hang my head. In other versions, I phone Sacramento, the state capitol, and make various inquiries. In the end, I am told that all my college degrees are now invalid. In order to regain them, I will have to attend high school at my old high school all over again.
So I am living with my mother (a nightmare in itself) and am forced to go back to high school. My mother is very angry with me so I am now grounded and only allowed to go to school and back.
In all versions of the dream, it is my old high school where I went as a teen (in real life I graduated in June of 1963), but it is the present day. In some versions of the dream, the kids think I'm really weird and keep asking me what I am doing attending regular high school at my age. In other versions, they simply ignore me.
The academic work is very easy, of course, but very boring. I feel lonely, embarrassed by my failure as a human being and really depressed. There seems to be no way out and I realize I will be doing this for several years.
I wake up depressed and angry. After about an hour, the dream makes me laugh. Considering what my life has been like, this dream needs no interpretation; it's meaning is obvious.
I haven't had this dream since my mother died. I hope that means I have stopped feeling like a total failure.
I had this dream for years over and over again every three or four months:
I am living with my mother but I am an adult. (In real life I left home at the age of 18).
One day a letter comes from a bureaucratic office of the state of California (my home state). It says something like this:
Dear Citizen of California:
After an in-depth background check on your life, you have been designated a complete and total failure as a human being. As a result, any certificates for educational achievement have been withdrawn by court order.
Sincerely,
The State of California
[This letter varied a little from one dream to another...But you get the idea].
In the dream, I am shocked and puzzled. I am trying to figure out what it means when my mother comes into the room, asks me about the letter in an interrogating tone, and then, not knowing what to say, as I hesitate to answer, she grabs it out of my hands and reads it.
She is furious.
"You are no longer a graduate!!! You have lost your high school diploma!!!" She screams at me. "Your whole life has just gone down the drain!!!"
I try to argue with her. I point out that I have never heard of anyone receiving such a letter. And, even if it means I no longer have a high school diploma, that cannot be important because, after all, I have several college degrees and a teaching credential.
She roars at me. "Don't you get it?!!! Those degrees are no good now!!! Your college degrees are invalid!!! You have no high school diploma,so your college degrees and teaching credential have been cancelled!!!"
In some versions of the dream, I believe her right away and hang my head. In other versions, I phone Sacramento, the state capitol, and make various inquiries. In the end, I am told that all my college degrees are now invalid. In order to regain them, I will have to attend high school at my old high school all over again.
So I am living with my mother (a nightmare in itself) and am forced to go back to high school. My mother is very angry with me so I am now grounded and only allowed to go to school and back.
In all versions of the dream, it is my old high school where I went as a teen (in real life I graduated in June of 1963), but it is the present day. In some versions of the dream, the kids think I'm really weird and keep asking me what I am doing attending regular high school at my age. In other versions, they simply ignore me.
The academic work is very easy, of course, but very boring. I feel lonely, embarrassed by my failure as a human being and really depressed. There seems to be no way out and I realize I will be doing this for several years.
I wake up depressed and angry. After about an hour, the dream makes me laugh. Considering what my life has been like, this dream needs no interpretation; it's meaning is obvious.
I haven't had this dream since my mother died. I hope that means I have stopped feeling like a total failure.
70-79, F
