When I was a kid, I experienced many nightmares. Usually, they involved some kind of faceless monster in the dark–the usual midnight terror fare. Sometimes I would share these dark dreams with my parents, thinking that they too have experienced similar nightmares about monsters. To my surprise, their nightmares are academic, involving dreary events like failing a test in college. My young innocent ears couldn’t believe it–how could tests and schoolwork be nightmare fuel? I laughed in disbelief.

I have recently begun swallowing my naive words. During the past few years of college, I have had a host of nightmares involving schoolwork. Last night, I had yet another dream where I had mistakenly forgotten to attend a final exam. I felt the same type of fear as with the dark monsters in my childish dreams. How could I have missed my final? What will I do? Can I make up the course? These frantic questions streamed through my head.

The regular occurrence of these nightmares has made such an impression in my subconsciousness that I have begun to lucidly recognize them. During the course of my dream last night, I actually asked myself, “Is this a dream?” I waited for what seemed like a minute during my dream to see if I would wake up. I didn’t, and therefore concluded that it must really be happening. Needless to say, I breathe a heavy sigh of relief when the morning comes. This is followed by asking myself if I’ve been too stressed lately. In any case, I now appreciate my parents’ response to my nightmare inquiries. The academic world can be frighteningly difficult sometimes.

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