I have been an attorney for 40 years. I have a recurring dream that I never really graduated from college because I cut so many classes. I brought this up on a Facebook chat and was astounded at the hundreds of respondents who had the same dream, ostensibly a symptom of imposter syndrome :-)
I used to have a version of that dream. In mine it was the last final exam in an advanced math class that I had enrolled in but forgotten about. I think it's common. I actually have not had that one in a while though. Thanks for sharing yours.
Dreams are so strange. I used to have a recurring dream that I was teenager, and I would sneak out of my house late at night. I would go to this very large pink, old house and, when I opened the closets there were large cockroaches, large spiders, large rats and mice as big as each closet. I would open each one, scream, run out of the house and go home and go back to bed. I had this crazy dream very,very often until I married my recent husband and have never had it again since then.
Not a dream, but a thought experiment that is recurring: among other thing, I go back and pull the trigger on buying more Apple stock when it looked like the company was going under.
reminds me of a time I was at a party talking to a guy about a new thing called Amazon that was doing books only - I loved it, the guy thought it was an awful idea...
Recurring dream that I still remember but was around 4 yrs old at the dream time. I was trying to escape from a devil and would always wind up falling out of bed and waking up. At the time though I was being molested by a friend of the family. So there’s that.
As for changing things, I’m a huge OUTLANDER reader so am familiar with the concept of time travel as Diana Gabaldon saw the concept at least. Large events that really affected people’s lives(9/11, for an example)are impossible to stop; however, individual lives, and thus incremental changes, could be done. So instead of all who died on that fateful date, a few remained at home and lived out their lives, having families who, themselves, changed history in some way that was significant but in their time.
We know that the concept of time is a human construct. Early peoples needed a way to know when to plant crops, mark religious events so the first calendars were created for such purposes. The rest is history-for us. But time or the scientific concept of time, while extremely fascinating, the study of it is far beyond my pay grade so I’ll just have to watch You Tube videos about Time and hope I can begin to understand the enormity of the concept.
I'd only go back if l could have different parents. l'll not go deep into why, suffice to say they weren't REALLY bad...just enough to matter to myself & my siblings.
sorry, this is long... in field placement for undergrad work for my psych degree I worked w/ a psychiatrist doing dream research w/ suicidal patients. He studied the dreams of those who attempted suicide; I researched the dreams of the family members. Doing this, I also learned a lot about dreams/meanings, etc... I began keeping a journal next to my bed in order to write down my dreams. I began remembering my dreams almost every night. Sometimes I'd wake up, being disappointed not remembering, then look at my journal only to discover that I had in fact written a dream & THEN remembered briefly waking during the night & writing it down & I also remembered the dream. So, you can 'train' yourself to remember more. I absolutely love love love to dream. Even the weird ones. Your are the author.
questions from Bill: no, I don't have recurring dreams now but as a kid I used to often dream I could fly. I did the breast stroke & had so much fun, it was so peaceful!! Haven't been able to get myself into one of those dreams again for many years.
Go back & change something? Can't think of anything, altho this does bring up another topic of discussion...
If you could choose to go anywhere in time, past or future, & be safe while there, just to visit for "awhile" & know you can come back, which would you choose? I always go into the future - I'm a scifi fan, have been since my early teens. However, the majority of people choose the past. Many people want to talk to Jesus.
I dreamt i could fly when i was a kid too. About the only dreams I ever remembered. OBTW, I recently FINALLY went on a hot air balloon ride. VERY similar to the feeling in those flying dreams
I strongly recommend it. Were I younger I would be in the market for a balloon and start down the path to earning my license and I got my private pilot license in college. Ballooning is just well more because it’s less.
That is an interesting question. But I think I would go back to people that passed away and say things I should have said while they were alive or be with them or face them and speak up (or shut up, in some cases).
You know ... I wrote this originally a little while ago, and I can't remember what I was going to say would be my event!
But it is a fun thought experiment, especially since it can only include things that happened after I was 10 years old, and that I'd have to deal with practical issues -- like a 10-year-old doesn't have a credit card or a driver's license etc.
I try not to get too political in this newsletter, but one idea would be to track down Hillary Rodham Clinton in Arkansas in about 1984 and tell her: "Someday you will hear the name Monica Lewinsky. Be very, very careful and keep your husband away from her. I can't tell you why, but I'll bet you can guess, and the ramifications will go far beyond what you can imagine."
Basically, if there's no Lewinsky scandal, there's no impeachment, Gore is likely elected in 2000 and maybe 9/11 doesn't happen if you believe the Richard Clarke idea that the Clinton folks were very focused on alQ but the incoming Bush people were not so. But, even if 9/11 does happen, Gore definitely does not invade Iraq as a result. (However, you also have to consider that if 9/11 didn't happen, maybe something worse would have happened later!)
Less controversial, maybe I would make it a mission to warn people about the oft-forgotten tsunami from December 26, 2004 that killed more than 227,000 people and the Haitian earthquake from 2010 that killed between 100k and 300k. Not sure exactly how to do that though!
Maybe I'd have to think of an earlier event to to predict publicly, and it has to be something I can remember offhand. Maybe Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series, which I remember watching with my parents, and then followed by the 1989 World Series earthquake. The point would be so people might believe I had the ability to predict things.
A fun idea would be to write a novel a few years ahead of time in which these events happen exactly.
Also I'd tell my parents that for my 11th birthday I would like 1 share of Berkshire Hathaway class A stock. Plus buy MSFT, all kinds of dotcom 1.0 stocks, but dump them in February 2000, bitcoin before almost anyone even knows what it is, etc.
Good choices all. OBTW we blew through your state for a bit heading back south to Florida from Maine and Canada. Lots of traffic up there but NYC still wins for worst AND worst roads (as in condition of the roads). Sadly, it’s a low bar for worst roads in the US.
I do have a recurring dream of working at the hospital again and waking up relieved I am not. I made the right decision, leaving when I did, having exhausted all opportunities for advancement there.
As for going back in time, though it sounds tempting, I prefer to leave the past where it belongs, behind me. Just trying to help people has caused me a lot of grief, but it has made me stronger and more resilient. Onward and upward.
My dream takes place in my grandparents’ basement — sort of their ‘family room’ but unfinished. All of the living family members are gathered in the space and socializing. And near the furnace there is a door that was never there before. I walk through and behind it are the family members who have died just as I knew them, socializing the same way the living ones are.
We are all alike, mine is that I'm at college and we are way past the drop date, and I don't know what time my classes are or where on campus, so I'm panicked running around campus looking for my class. Interesting thing for me, the campus often differ. One is a version of my high school, but most are a fictional college campus, not the one I attended or any I've been to.
But it's just the dread and anxiety of not knowing how to find the class (although I can always picture the classroom and the professor in my mind, just not what building on campus)
I very seldom remember my dreams, and when I do, they are invariably weird ones. For example, I once dreamed that I was fighting a lion with a 3-legged step-stool; another time, I dreamed that I married a girl that I had known for about 1 hour.
I have been an attorney for 40 years. I have a recurring dream that I never really graduated from college because I cut so many classes. I brought this up on a Facebook chat and was astounded at the hundreds of respondents who had the same dream, ostensibly a symptom of imposter syndrome :-)
I used to have a version of that dream. In mine it was the last final exam in an advanced math class that I had enrolled in but forgotten about. I think it's common. I actually have not had that one in a while though. Thanks for sharing yours.
Dreams are so strange. I used to have a recurring dream that I was teenager, and I would sneak out of my house late at night. I would go to this very large pink, old house and, when I opened the closets there were large cockroaches, large spiders, large rats and mice as big as each closet. I would open each one, scream, run out of the house and go home and go back to bed. I had this crazy dream very,very often until I married my recent husband and have never had it again since then.
Thanks for sharing.
Not a dream, but a thought experiment that is recurring: among other thing, I go back and pull the trigger on buying more Apple stock when it looked like the company was going under.
reminds me of a time I was at a party talking to a guy about a new thing called Amazon that was doing books only - I loved it, the guy thought it was an awful idea...
And if I could go back in time and change things, I would have turned my radio off. That decision not to changed my life.
to you, I'll say your reply to Jeff ---
I screamed and prayed and asked God. He did. Another story for another day, but that, too, changed my life much later. Thank you.
Recurring dream that I still remember but was around 4 yrs old at the dream time. I was trying to escape from a devil and would always wind up falling out of bed and waking up. At the time though I was being molested by a friend of the family. So there’s that.
As for changing things, I’m a huge OUTLANDER reader so am familiar with the concept of time travel as Diana Gabaldon saw the concept at least. Large events that really affected people’s lives(9/11, for an example)are impossible to stop; however, individual lives, and thus incremental changes, could be done. So instead of all who died on that fateful date, a few remained at home and lived out their lives, having families who, themselves, changed history in some way that was significant but in their time.
We know that the concept of time is a human construct. Early peoples needed a way to know when to plant crops, mark religious events so the first calendars were created for such purposes. The rest is history-for us. But time or the scientific concept of time, while extremely fascinating, the study of it is far beyond my pay grade so I’ll just have to watch You Tube videos about Time and hope I can begin to understand the enormity of the concept.
I'd go back to 3am, November 1, 2021 and keep my damn mouth shut. Two words that changed my life and I will regret to my dying day.
Not asking why, but I’m sorry. Forgive yourself. 💞
I'd only go back if l could have different parents. l'll not go deep into why, suffice to say they weren't REALLY bad...just enough to matter to myself & my siblings.
I should add that l seldom remember my dreams. Unfortunately
I would change the health of my father.
💞
sorry, this is long... in field placement for undergrad work for my psych degree I worked w/ a psychiatrist doing dream research w/ suicidal patients. He studied the dreams of those who attempted suicide; I researched the dreams of the family members. Doing this, I also learned a lot about dreams/meanings, etc... I began keeping a journal next to my bed in order to write down my dreams. I began remembering my dreams almost every night. Sometimes I'd wake up, being disappointed not remembering, then look at my journal only to discover that I had in fact written a dream & THEN remembered briefly waking during the night & writing it down & I also remembered the dream. So, you can 'train' yourself to remember more. I absolutely love love love to dream. Even the weird ones. Your are the author.
questions from Bill: no, I don't have recurring dreams now but as a kid I used to often dream I could fly. I did the breast stroke & had so much fun, it was so peaceful!! Haven't been able to get myself into one of those dreams again for many years.
Go back & change something? Can't think of anything, altho this does bring up another topic of discussion...
If you could choose to go anywhere in time, past or future, & be safe while there, just to visit for "awhile" & know you can come back, which would you choose? I always go into the future - I'm a scifi fan, have been since my early teens. However, the majority of people choose the past. Many people want to talk to Jesus.
I dreamt i could fly when i was a kid too. About the only dreams I ever remembered. OBTW, I recently FINALLY went on a hot air balloon ride. VERY similar to the feeling in those flying dreams
I scuba dive & that is extremely similar 😊
I dive too but all the extra stuff required (tanks, etc.) makes it not the same as just standing in a balloon and floating through the air.
Maybe I’ll have a chance to try it 🤞🏼
I strongly recommend it. Were I younger I would be in the market for a balloon and start down the path to earning my license and I got my private pilot license in college. Ballooning is just well more because it’s less.
I wanted to get my private pilot license, but it was expensive, so...
That is an interesting question. But I think I would go back to people that passed away and say things I should have said while they were alive or be with them or face them and speak up (or shut up, in some cases).
Bill, where is this?
“I'll tell you the event I came up with in the comments, and why.”
Also, if I went back I would’ve stayed with the girlfriend I’m now married to which would’ve skipped the 33 year break we took.
I might also do some more world changing things, but only after I made my world right first.
You know ... I wrote this originally a little while ago, and I can't remember what I was going to say would be my event!
But it is a fun thought experiment, especially since it can only include things that happened after I was 10 years old, and that I'd have to deal with practical issues -- like a 10-year-old doesn't have a credit card or a driver's license etc.
I try not to get too political in this newsletter, but one idea would be to track down Hillary Rodham Clinton in Arkansas in about 1984 and tell her: "Someday you will hear the name Monica Lewinsky. Be very, very careful and keep your husband away from her. I can't tell you why, but I'll bet you can guess, and the ramifications will go far beyond what you can imagine."
Basically, if there's no Lewinsky scandal, there's no impeachment, Gore is likely elected in 2000 and maybe 9/11 doesn't happen if you believe the Richard Clarke idea that the Clinton folks were very focused on alQ but the incoming Bush people were not so. But, even if 9/11 does happen, Gore definitely does not invade Iraq as a result. (However, you also have to consider that if 9/11 didn't happen, maybe something worse would have happened later!)
Less controversial, maybe I would make it a mission to warn people about the oft-forgotten tsunami from December 26, 2004 that killed more than 227,000 people and the Haitian earthquake from 2010 that killed between 100k and 300k. Not sure exactly how to do that though!
Maybe I'd have to think of an earlier event to to predict publicly, and it has to be something I can remember offhand. Maybe Kirk Gibson's home run in the 1988 World Series, which I remember watching with my parents, and then followed by the 1989 World Series earthquake. The point would be so people might believe I had the ability to predict things.
A fun idea would be to write a novel a few years ahead of time in which these events happen exactly.
Also I'd tell my parents that for my 11th birthday I would like 1 share of Berkshire Hathaway class A stock. Plus buy MSFT, all kinds of dotcom 1.0 stocks, but dump them in February 2000, bitcoin before almost anyone even knows what it is, etc.
Good choices all. OBTW we blew through your state for a bit heading back south to Florida from Maine and Canada. Lots of traffic up there but NYC still wins for worst AND worst roads (as in condition of the roads). Sadly, it’s a low bar for worst roads in the US.
Changing one thing changes everything
as a scifi fan, yep
I do have a recurring dream of working at the hospital again and waking up relieved I am not. I made the right decision, leaving when I did, having exhausted all opportunities for advancement there.
As for going back in time, though it sounds tempting, I prefer to leave the past where it belongs, behind me. Just trying to help people has caused me a lot of grief, but it has made me stronger and more resilient. Onward and upward.
My dream takes place in my grandparents’ basement — sort of their ‘family room’ but unfinished. All of the living family members are gathered in the space and socializing. And near the furnace there is a door that was never there before. I walk through and behind it are the family members who have died just as I knew them, socializing the same way the living ones are.
Oh my goodness!
We are all alike, mine is that I'm at college and we are way past the drop date, and I don't know what time my classes are or where on campus, so I'm panicked running around campus looking for my class. Interesting thing for me, the campus often differ. One is a version of my high school, but most are a fictional college campus, not the one I attended or any I've been to.
But it's just the dread and anxiety of not knowing how to find the class (although I can always picture the classroom and the professor in my mind, just not what building on campus)
I very seldom remember my dreams, and when I do, they are invariably weird ones. For example, I once dreamed that I was fighting a lion with a 3-legged step-stool; another time, I dreamed that I married a girl that I had known for about 1 hour.