My back to school anxiety dreams have begun. I never had these dreams as a student, and in addition to putting up with people winking at me and saying, “Those who can’t do, teach!” I consider this ritual of August to be the worst part of my job. They seem to have begun a few weeks early this year, but I have the distinct feeling that I said that last year, so who knows.
I remember bits and pieces of my dreams most nights, although they slip through my fingers within a few hours of waking so that I can no longer articulate them. The images might have taken hold, but I lack the words to attach to those images.
So far during my sleeping hours this past week, I’ve been transferred to another school and nobody would tell me where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do, I showed up late on the first day of school, I got to work for the teacher inservice days and none of the people I know still worked in the building, and – my personal favorite – I showed up to teach my first day of school and my class was so out of control that one student stood up, unzipped his fly, and took a leak on the floor.
I haven’t had the big one yet. Old Reliable. The dream I have every year. The one that makes me wake up in a cold sweat. The one that seems so real that it takes me days to shake the feeling that I’ve totally blown it, or am about to.
Can you guess what it is?
The one where you’re nekkied at school?
The one where the union agrees to a salary decrease and an end to benefits?
dress like wrh day?
Can I make two guesses?
1) Its your biology final and you havent studied all year.
2) You can’t remember your locker combination and you are going to be late for something
(I’m projecting more than a bit here BTW)
Close?
I’m hoping it’s the one where you hang out with Taylor Mali. (I posted a couple of his poems over at my blog because of this post of yours.)
I don’t know what the big one is but I’ve had this one (minus the student urinating on the floor) more times than I can count. At least my anxiety dreams didn’t start until August this year. And, contrary to the messages your crazy subconscious is sending you, I’ll be there on the first day too.
Is it one where you realize you never completed a course and your degree (or teaching certificate) is invalid?
I’m also partial to one where I swallow my teeth. That dream puts me in a funk for days.
No idea on your anxiety dream BUT I can tell you–no dream–I lived the b-side of one of yours. While presenting at a very nice private boys’ school, I looked over and one boy had whipped it out and was going at it…but was not peeing. Grossed me out so much I didn’t even know what to say. (Rare for me in a professional situation.)
No, not the one where you used to work. No, not their rivals either.
Em: thanks so much for the link to WRH!
Emily: We have a winner! Usually it’s a biology exam, although sometimes it’s history. Often it’s not even that I haven’t studied all year but that I haven’t even attended the class or, worst case scenario, I’d forgotten I even HAD the class until exam day.
Maybe by writing about it, I’ll pre-empt it.
Oonie: I have no words.
naked. obviously you’re naked.
I still have the dream about not attending single class for entire semester and then trying to take the final. Why is that 25 years after college? It must be a universal thing that gets stuck on one’s subconscious mind. And yeah, the naked thing too.