Psychologists define a dream as a sequence of images, emotions and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind during REM sleep. They can be vivid, emotional and bizarre. Over the past week and a half I have kept record of my dreams in a dream journal, however over the next mornings I could only recollect four.
After writing out my dreams, they seem so scattered and random, not at all as they seemed in my head, it seems impossible to describe them, but here are my attempts.
In the first dream I recorded I lived in a dorm like place that resembled my middle school, Barret. I went to find my teacher because I had a test the next day and I needed help on some of the material. I went to look in the auditorium for her for some reason and evidently “Susical” was playing, so I took a seat. Michael Kirsch was really good and animated singing along side Ben Affleck. Finally, after waiting for a break so not to interrupt the show, I got up to leave and saw that my friend Perry was leaving at the same time so I exchanged hellos with him. I started back for my room and was worried because I was late, past curfew and thought that I was going to be in trouble with the other older girls who I guessed served as like advisors who also lived in my room. They were medical students, and Ellen Hale, one of my friend’s older sister, was one of them. I ended up not studying for my test with Emily who was really dressed up in a sequin dress and Tracy who was wearing God knows what, something really flowy that looked a lot like rags. In the end I failed the test.
This dream was all over the place, and here are the only explanations I can give: I had a test the next day so obviously this dream represents my anxiety for it. “Susical” is a play at my school that was showing at the time and I had really wanted to see it, and Michael Kirsch is a student involved in the plays but I don’t think this one, as for Ben Affleck, I have no idea why he was in it. The only other element of this dream I can somewhat explain is that Tracy often dresses in a “hippie” I guess you could say, manner so that could represent the rags.
The next dream I remembered was just as weird: One winter day my Dad was mad at me for some reason, but it was a really warm day. My Dad begged me to go on the boat even though I had other things to do, but I did because I wanted to make him not mad at me. I got on our houseboat and then ended up jumping from ours to another and hit my head on the railing of the other ladies boat. The woman who owned the other boat was very freaked out because I randomly jumped on her boat and I also hit my head. We went to the marina, which turned into her house, and she had two little toe-head boys. I was inside playing with a red ball with her kids along with my friend Andrea of which I have no idea how she appeared. Then my other friend, Casey, came in trying to get Andrea to go to dinner with her and Will, their friend, but I was not invited, plus I could not leave the kids. I was very upset and felt left out, so I snuck out and went any way and met them in a closet on the way out. Will was in a tuxedo eating buttered and salted noodles from a huge Tupperware bowl. We ended up out side and there was a big festival with bands playing along the road. The four of us were standing around singing when Will ditched us, saying, “I’m too punk for this” as he walked away.
After re-writing this dream out, I realize it is way more scattered then the previous, but I can make more since of certain things. I have no idea why my Dad was mad at me but it is not like it is a random thing so there could have been tension and that could have stressed me. We do have a boat but not a houseboat, and I could have easily hit my head on the headboard of my bed when I jumped from boat to boat because my head did hurt the next day. I now understand why I wasn’t invited to go to dinner with Will, Andrea and Casey and it is because they all three work together at Quiznos, and Andrea and Casey always talk about him. As for the buttered noodles, I realize that my sister had those for dinner that night and I was very jealous, and for the Tupperware bowl, I emptied the dishwasher and commented on how huge an amount of Tupperware we had. The only other thing I could possible account for is Will saying, “I’m too punk for this” because a friend of mine has an email address “toopunk4this” so maybe I thought about him that day.
In my third recollected dream, we were in Mexico with our Camper and someone we met invited us over for dinner at their mansion. A lot of people were there, we went in side the house and it was very creepy. The next thing I remember we were in the house owners kitchen, and he was like casting spells and transformed into into a scary vampire like man, forcing us to eat cookies that looked really good like the iced ones from my favorite bakery, Plehns. I somehow snuck out with my sisters and got my uncle to go help my parents. Hannah Boyer ended up with us and we went into Soccer Plus, following the only other person we knew, Jack Cheadle. We played around in a carpeted vortex staircase, and I finally saw my parents in a beat up corvette with the bumper falling off. They hurried us out to the car and it was raining. We had to drive the corvette all the way back to the USA. It was way worse than the camper was, but at least we were all still alive. We had a dog and a cat with us, and then Dad evidently bought two more identical ones, one of which was running along side the car, we all looked out the window and then said in unison “nice touch Dad!” in sarcasm.
The dreams just keep getting weirder and weirder, some things that I can account for are that over the summer my family and I went to Mexico in our camper and we did meet a lot of people, but none of them were mean much less vampires. I know at the time I really needed new cleats, which I always purchase from Soccer Plus, so that explains that. I don’t even know who Jack Cheadle is other than he went to my elementary and high school and is friends with Hannah Boyer, both are sports fanatics so that could also explain why we went to Soccer Plus. As for the vortex staircase, it looked like one I went to in a haunted house a few weeks before. I had just gotten a car that week and its bumper was also falling off just like the corvettes, and that is all I can give you any explanation for, this was a really random dream, it really stressed me out, I can remember waking up in a panic ad almost crying because I was so scared, (it was scarier than it sounds) but I cannot recollect even recording it, I reread this for the first time today and had no idea what I was talking about!
All I remember about this next dream is that I was getting ready for school so I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning and I put my books in the wrong backpack.
This is a really short explanation and it has a pretty obvious explanation, I was stressed about school and leaving my homework at home. I don’t remember writing this dream down either!
The last dream that I recollect is that I and a few friends, Tracy, Emily, Hannah and I think Emma and Matt were trying to camp on a steep hill that resembled Dog Hill in Cherokee Park. I kept rolling down, I was wearing sunglasses that I kept loosing and freaking out about then my friend Scott said Emily was a Goddess.
What a surprise I have no clue about having or writing this dream either! I must have been sleep writing, here is some explanation though: my friend Scott and Emily really do like each other so I guess in the dream I was feeling some sort of jealousy towards Emily, but trust me I don’t care in real life! This dream was also very short and I don’t remember as many details as I do in my previous ones.
After reading through my dream journal, I realize I wrote down five not four, showing the state of mind I was in while writing them down.
There were not many if any common threads running through my dream journal that I can recognize, other than everyday life experiences and stresses. It seems that in many of my dreams, they are warning me of things to come, such as the test that I failed, or leaving my homework at home. They also reminisce on the stress I have been in lately, the jealousy I have secretly felt, for example of Andrea and Casey’s friend Will. In all of my dreams they have represented or shown elements in review of my days or just my life in general, such as the buttery noodles, or the boat. My dreams were mundane as well as bizarre; most of them had some components that reflected my real life, while they had bizarre aspects of which I have no idea where they originated from. All of my dreams were a little bit disturbing, or at least a few of them. The dream about the vampire in Mexico kind of showed me how much I should appreciate my family, it showed me the anxiety I felt of loosing them, this was pretty disturbing. I had no control over any of these dreams, some things went right, and obviously others went wrong, I got to go out with Andrea and Casey and my family lived, but I never got one of those yummy cookies from Plehns!
I really enjoyed this assignment because I have always wanted to analyze and really think about or at least remember my dreams, but I have never taken the time to do so, and this pushed me to do just that, and I realized that dreams are one of the many interesting but amazing things about the Human Mind.
