settled for the mediocre path (in real life)
Level of Lucidity: N/A Level of Cohesiveness:
Rating:
Lucid Intent? Yes
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links to my dream illustrations, dream animations, and musical scores
[lucid assignment: let the dream direct itself, and just go along with the plot as an extra would]
I'm in New York City. I come back to the garage that I have a dream memory of, that I parked my car in. But I've lost my key, and feel frantic. I go and wait in a line with other people who have lost their keys and are trying to find them.
When I get to the front of the line, a woman behind a table says that my car is there.
"But my key is not?" I ask incredulously.
A bizarre shift in the dream occurs, and I don't even notice. The woman behind the table has NOT just talked to me about my car, she has just told me that I'm supposed to go into the dean's office ... at Harvard University. I have new (dream) knowledge what this is about ... I didn't do well on my final exam in one of my (dream) classes at Harvard.
I plod in the direction of his office, certain that the news will be bad. When I go in, a silver-haired man in a suit has me sit down. He opens his mouth to speak to me, when the (dream) president of Harvard marches into the office.
"I'll take care of this," the dean says sharply to the president.
"No," the president replies, "I know you'll be too easy on him. I'm going to tell him." Then he turns to me and says, "You were ten questions off on the final exam." He turns back to the dean and says, "Tell him that he's to give up on Harvard, and he won't be allowed back." The president marches out of the office.
I look at the dean, and see an expression of great sadness pass across his face ... so much so I think he's going to shed a few tears. Suddenly I realize, the dean cares a great deal about me, and he thinks this event will ruin my life -- he thinks I will never try anything ambitious ever again. I'm so surprised by this insight into his thoughts that I wake up.
I sit up on the edge of my bed, wide awake because it was such a startling dream.
It almost immediately occurs to me that the dean was an aspect of myself, and has been in the background of my mind all these many years since I had a terrible year as a freshman in college in real life. While I did take a break from college and went back home for a year to recover, it suddenly occurs to me, as I sit there, that my subconscious was telling me via this dream that I GAVE UP on pursuing the best possible path for myself, and settled for something mediocre in exchange.
Then I start to feel inspired. Why else would I have had this dream, except to make me realize that I should still try to pursue such a path? Why is it ever too late to go for the best possible outcome that begins from that very moment?
Often people that have a large failure in life never have the energy to try again, since they feel their best effort has failed ... and this dream makes me realize I'm in danger of becoming one of those people.
