The following is an excerpt from the Location Chapter of my latest book Dream On It, Unlock Your Dreams Change Your Life…
Unfortunately, the most popular dream location is not a sunny beach in Maui or even the Champs-Élysées in Paris! Nay, t’is the cinder blocked halls of our old alma mater. Even if you graduated ten, twenty, even fifty years ago, your dreaming mind keeps pulling you back into chemistry class wearing nothing but your Nikes or roaming the halls trying to find your locker.
The reason school is such a popular dream locale is because the dynamics of the school setting continue on into your job or career and also into your social life. School is where you first learn the importance of being on time and meeting deadlines, it is where you learn how to prepare and “do your homework,” it is where you learn how to deal with scrutiny, how to move on up the ladder, and also how to fit in. Basically, it’s where you learn all your basic job skills and social skills. School dreams are most often connected to your work life and slightly less often connected to your social life.
One of the more common school dream is the dream where you are back at school, and you know you have already graduated but find out you have to do a class or your senior year all over again. The main thought in these frustrating dreams is that you’ve already done this, why do you have to do it again? Grrrr! This dream thought is connected to the waking reality that you are in a situation where you have to prove yourself. You know you’ve got what it takes, but someone else needs to be shown you’ve got the goods.
I dreamed I was back in high school because I had to take my senior year all over again. As I was walking the halls I was trying to figure out how I could fit school into my current life of work and raising a child. I also wondered what all the students would think of me. I figured that, since I’m older and wiser now, perhaps the students would really like me and that I should also be able to breeze through all my classes.
– Dina 41
Lauri: Sounds like you must be in a waking life situation where you are feeling the need to prove yourself to others. Look at work first as most back at school dreams are triggered by work issues. Are you having to relearn something? Do you have a new boss or co-worker you need to impress? If work doesn’t seem to fit then look at your social life. You are very concerned in the dream of what others will think of you. Is there someone in waking life with whom you’d like to make a good impression? The good news is that your confidence at the end of the dream will certainly penetrate into your waking life situation so I wouldn’t sweat it.
Dina replies: This absolutely fits what is going on in my life. My family just moved to a new state two months ago. I don’t know a soul here. My next door neighbor invited me to a coffee social at her house. I am very nervous about meeting new people and worry how I may come across to them. I was a social butterfly in my previous town so deep down I know I’ll get along just fine. I like how my dream is reassuring me. That’s cool.
Dreams can indeed be reassuring. What we are unsure of in waking life, our inner self is certain of in dream life. Dina’s dream was reassuring her about the social area of her life by comparing this new social pressure to the social pressures of high school: wanting to be liked and wanting to fit in. Unlike her time in high school, she has learned her social graces and is a seasoned pro. Nothing to worry about.
Yes, the majority of school dreams can be connected to your job because school was, essentially, your first job. And like school, your job is a place you have to get up every morning and go to and do what is expected of you and deal with the people there, some you like and some you don’t, and try to improve your skills so you can eventually move up to the next level. But sometimes it is the social or learning aspect of school that plays a role in its meaning. When you have to deal with a social issue, when you have to learn a new skill, or even when life throws a lesson at you during the day, you may find yourself in the hallowed halls of learning at night.
Got a loved one who’s about to graduate? Why not send them off to follow their dreams with an autographed dream book? Being able to understand their dreams will help them with every single part of their life… for the rest of their life! And they’ll think of you every time they get an “Aha! moment.”
“I received your wonderful book today! It’s amazing and your writing is funny!! Anyway, I LOVE the book!!” – Donna Copman
" What we are unsure of in waking life, our inner self is certain of in dream life."-Nice!
I noticed when I was going to have to move to Idaho from California with my family, I had a LOT of back to school nightmares, but typically it was a school I had NEVER been to (in waking life)! People were mean, even outright cruel to me, I mean…vivisection, blackmail, stalking, forcing me to do ALL of the students homework for them while they were off playing games and elsewhere…even attempted (and some cases, successful) murder if I didn't get each and every single answer correct on tests and pop quizzes. Many times I was even driven to commit suicide! I always woke up extremely frightened and even crying from them, too…but it reflects how I was feeling about moving.
A place where no one would know me. I was constantly fearful of how I would "fit in" at my new location, and felt very upset and lost in my peer pressure (or should I say FEAR pressure?) of moving to a completely new and foreign place. I did question the options: will my friends here still remember me? Will I make new friends? What will I have to learn politically or religiously to fit in there? What if I don't make any friends? Will I be an outcast? I was "quizzing" myself with these questions too and I was quite "testy" about the move! So, even a nightmare is a very great thing to have and are extremely good for us too.