Posting within an hour of waking from strange dream. Definitely a challenge for interpreters.
Introduction
To be honest, I have no experience in Lucid Dreaming nor have I tried to, but I just came here to have my dream interpreted. I posted as quickly as I could, knowing that sometimes even the most vivid of dreams can fade from my memory, especially if it has a number of seemingly incongruous events that I need to keep grasping at in order not to forget.
Settings
There are a few odd themes inside the dream, as well as some unusual "settings", very much like how a flash game has "settings" for volume, quality, etc. In this dream, the settings are:
1) Ability to not only speak in my 3rd language but more fluently so than in real life, perhaps because "thinking" of what you would say is an easier process than actually saying it. More so if it was something like your 3rd language.
2) Having my social awareness and even personal superstitions intact and being aware of them. Oddly enough I am more relaxed with my superstitions, as I broke some of them but minded way less in my dream. Social awareness was very high when interacting with people in my dreamscape, to the point where I execute my actions in accordance to them coldly and strategically to ensure best leverage. I demonstrated an understanding of social graces and etiquette in the dream, which I know does not occur in all dreams.
3) I can read analogue clock faces, but not labels. I think I can read billboards and bigger signs in general, or else I won't be able to identify the 7 - 11 in my 2nd act.
4) The dream is permanently in night time. Or at least, the dream has occurred under a dark sky (well, sometimes I'm indoors). Not the gloomy one. Just the stark black of the night.
5) I dreamt this in colour as usual. This was a soundless dream. I would probably use imagination to fill in the voices for everyone that verbally interacted with me based on my memory of them in real life or through a stereotype. For example a fatherly figure would have a deep, rumbling and yet accomodating tone.
Act 1: The School - Me interacting with the Many
Preamble
Originally, I had only intended to write about the 2nd act, as it was the only part of dream I had memory of upon waking. As I fired up the computer, I remembered the part that connected Act 1 to Act 2. As I was completing the signing in process here, I remembered the actual part before Act 2, known as Act 1. From this point on, I do not recall any more parts before then. So this will be the first act.
My decision to split this into 2 acts because you know how dreams are. You can have an entirely coherent dream without breaks in between, but you feel as though the dream is split into 2 or more clearly defined segments, due to their themes and/or simply by their physical, geographical setting.
Act 1a) - The Scholarship
The setting for Act 1 is located in a university campus. I'm currently in the middle of college in REAL LIFE.
I was in middle of college in this dream as well. The earliest part that I remembered about the dream was that it was a big day for me: I won a scholarship for making college history by getting an unprecedentedly high finish as a finalist at a prestigious international performing arts competition at inter-college levels. This has happened in real life, but before I entered college and at National level only. This dream has decided to enhance the excellence of this feat upwards, perhaps there was a hint of ambition in this regard.
As it is in real life, I had a one other schoolmate who has achieved the same feat in the same year, from the same club, and it was also a female. The similarities end there.
In the dream, we received a scholarship that paid off our college fees in its entirety. In real life, my fees were already fully paid for thanks to parents (bless them), and my dream's fees were much too costly. I shall not reveal the cost, but I can say I remember the numbers clearly. I'm not sure if the ability to read financial documents is a common trait in dreams. I could do it here however.
In the dream, a total of 4 of us in college this year have achieved this scholarship. My schoolmate and I in the same discipline, a school idol whom I remembered from high school days who won it through what he does best: singing, and the 4th person was an unknown quantity that I seemed to take zero interest in.
An interesting fact is that I did not know Mr School Idol won this scholarship from the get-go, only later in the dream did I encounter him brandishing the cheque in the school grounds did I take this into account.
Only my schoolmate and I were called into the college's office of financial matters, which resembled my middle school's main office at the exterior, to be presented the award by a higher up in the school's staff. The sight of the outside of this office has commanded more fear than any other school offices in my schooling days, as discipline was much more strongly enforced then than in any of my other schools. However, in my dream it would be the place where I would be awarded something that would be a tremendous relief financially, as well as a form of recognition that might elevate my status in campus. As you have noticed, this awards ceremony was a closed-doors affair, very unusual.
The one who awarded us, an unmemorable male, gave us a financial receipt of college fees paid for and the ceremonious big cheque which was nowhere to be seen when we got outside the office. Too cumbersome to be carrying around in the dream, I suppose. While the office's exterior was a familiar sight from the past, the interior was labyrinthine and not unlike interpretations of secret government bases you get to see in spy flicks.
I can only assume the other 2 got their awards seperately from us for being in different fields. I do not know how I know there are 4 of us, I just know.
Act 1b) - School and its denizens
By now you should realize my dream has incorporated elements from not only my college life, but from my days in previous institutions as well. This trend will continue.
Remember how I mentioned that my fellow awardee was not very similar to her counterpart in real life? This was very much so. In real life, we were rivals and pretty distant to one another, each from a different clique in the performing arts club. This one was particularly clingy, and from the moment we were outside the office did she begin to hold on to my hand like she wanted to be my bestie. I had an uncomfortable feeling about that, and was unsure as to why it was so at that moment.
The rest of the campus grounds seemed to resemble my high school, and it was so as both of us made our way to the school's cafeteria... hand-in-hand no less. I waved and said hi to numerous people which I cannot remember exactly now, but I know that there was a good mix of people from elementary school days, middle school days and high school days. Oddly enough no college mates. The persistence of my waving probably conveyed my high status in campus: just about everyone I crossed knew me enough to at least give me a "hi". The feeling of unease with my bestie holding my hand steadily upped.
The cafeteria resembled the one in my elementary school, but it was comprised of many different food options like in college, and not a forced menu affair. There was a blur in my memory from this point to when I exited the cafeteria in an obvious hurry, but a few facts were established from whatever negative event took place there: 1) my "bestie" was an unexplained outcast in the community and her achievement did not change that, 2) my value and popularity has been dropping with every second spent in physically close proximity with her, thus my previous discomfort and 3) my discomfort with her has elevated to a need to get away from her.
This is a recurring theme in real life. I was not an outcast by any means in any community I would be part of, be it school, work, or similar. In fact, there were instances of me being a community leader and someone noted for excellence, especially in fields where I take a vested interest in. However, I would still consider myself ordinary, so such instances were not exactly frequent. However, I have tasted fervent popularity enough to experience what will make it or break it for me. So makes it and what breaks it? I can clearly identify what has consistently broken my popularity streaks in the past.
My Achilles' Heel here was my tendency to associate with people who have been "outcasted" or are in general, shunned by the rest. Some of my worst social experiences in life was when I took a stand for and/or befriended the unpopular. I knew this has profoundly hurt my status in the past, and as I grew older and had more of such negative experiences, I became far more adverse to standing up for them, preferring to be "neutral". However, I would never join the jeering masses and shun whoever it was in question, even if it meant better standing with the majority.
However, this was precisely what I did in the dream. I knew that my social status, freshly elevated, would crash around my ears if I associated with "bestie", so I decided to make a fast break for it and out of the cafeteria I went, knowing full well my sudden desertion would hurt her badly. I had awareness of my social value in my community, identified the threat to it, and coldly terminated it. Very Machiavellian, and something I would not do in real life. In this dreamscape however, it was a cold and precise maneuver. I cannot emphasize this enough.
She gave chase naturally, me being the only friend I had here. Running past scores of even more familiar faces from my school life, including Mr School Idol who recognized me and excitedly brandished his massive cheque with his trademark boyish enthusiasm, I realized my reception was generally more subdued, and even negative at instances. No "hi"s anymore. I needed to repair my status, and quick.
It is time to move. School day wound down to a close, it has ended.
Act 2: The Transport - Me interacting with Another
Transition between the Parts
School day wound down to a close, it has ended. Now there would be a significant thematic and setting shift. However, some tendrils of the first Act need to be tied up and addressed. The theme of "popularity" and the setting of "school" remain, but the transition is here.
Like in elementary school, I was boarding the bus. However this bus was not the skanky affair of a elementary school bus. It was a modern make, of air-conditioning and strobe lights (?!) in the dark. Basically the setting of a club. In the dream, this bizarre concept existed: a school bus that sends college students home when the day wound down (whenever that is, because that's a very elementary to high school thing... college never truly ends with a fixed time of the day), with the interior of a nightclub to keep its occupants happy. I was a ruler of this domain, taking a completely different persona and being totally indistinguishable from my in-campus self. I took the appearance of perpetually shades-wearing alpha male with a mohawk.
In this setting, I had a strategy to build popularity. I would rush to the bus, earliest bird by far. I would build rapport with the driver, a stocky amiable elderly man with grayish hair, enabling me to establish the most strategic spot in the club-bus. I would enthusiastically welcome any of the big players in the club-bus the moment they set foot in it, have them bask in the prime area I picked out for them and continuously do so until I have an entire posse of popular people around me, then as the club heats up and the wheels of the bus turn and go to our homes, wherever they may be, we would be the hottest items around.
This was the strategy I visualized as I did the routine thing of small talking the driver, the "manager" so to speak, as he let me pick out the best cluster of seats as usual. Note that the "best" seats were not physically distinguishable in the dream. It is just that me and everyone else who enters just instinctively knows the relative value of a seat.
On this instance though, no one boarded the bus, and the bus started.
It made a few circuits around its route, crossing the vicinity of my home a few times. I was long overdue to get off a couple loops ago. However, I had a confusing and weary day, so I decided to lay in what I would call my "territory" for solace.
The next part begins, proper.
Act 2a) - Transformers
After the bus looped a few times and landed outside the campus once more, with no one boarding, I caught a glimpse of the driver's face in the overhead rear-view mirror. His reflection looked directly at me and asked if I was ever getting off where I was supposed to. I merely told him I wanted to rest in here for as long as I could, I wanted reside in the bastion where I was comfortable and popular.
Comfort here was not just emotional, but physical. I had chosen the best seats after all, and I would stay for as long as the club-bus was going throughout this night still young.
As if understanding, the driver nodded and continued. He added that since there was no one coming along, so he would accommodate our needs better.
The club-bus interiors morphed into that of a taxi, but it was no longer a club inside but a taxi. Albeit one with the plushiest leather seats and a night setting. I am reminiscing fondly as I write this, trust me. This was as comfortable as I'd have ever been in the dream, I could have easily been in a limousine and would not be able to tell the difference in comfort levels. I am reminiscing fondly as I write this, trust me.
The bus driver morphed too. Now the taxi driver has taken a different appearance. He resembled (the actor of) an Asian Emperor that I once saw in feudal era Japanese flick, known for his mercurial temper: the ability to switch between malevolence and benevolence with ease. In the flick his benevolent side was more dominant. In this dream, his benevolent side was the only present. A rich and fatherly voice was imagined.
He began to strike up a conversation. Not the kind of PR-ish things you would go for when you chat with say, the manager of a club when you want to build rapport. This was different. These were mundane but warm topics. How did your day go? Are you getting along fine with life? I also realized my persona has changed, now I am just a featureless, nondescript passenger in the taxi, laid bare and only armed with my personality, experiences, emotions and knowledge.
The core of being, basically.
It was upon his insistence that I had to speak his mother tongue now that he's Asian, and it was a language which happened to be a 3rd language I picked up. I spoke haltingly throughout, but slightly better than I would in real life, at least getting my accent off from my vocalization which would be physically impossible in real life as of now. As I have mentioned, this might be the effect of the conversation going on in my mind rather than physically. I can imagine good enunciation, and execute it in an awkward but decent manner in this one dream.
I cannot remember what we chatted about in entirety. I do know we got to increasingly personal topics like family life and the like. I do remember I demonstrated strong social awareness, able to anticipate exactly which topics would go dry/awkward and steer the conversation to better waters. All these despite my lack of proficiency in said language.
The landscape has changed. In the club-bus I would hardly bother to look out of the window: I would be informed by the trusty driver somehow that it would be good to alight. I assumed we would pass many homes as we would see off no small number of college students. Here in the taxi, I looked out and saw only 2 scapes.
1) A stereotypical big city at night. Billboards and neon signs on skyscrapers ruled the skyline. I could even get an odd third person view of the entire urban scenery with our taxi within, in the mind's eye.
2) The road just outside my home. Passing it brought comfort and a longing to get back, as the sight of it always does.
However, the taxi driver and the ride was a better deal to me now.
Act 2b) - Chronology
I now realized I have access to an analog watch, perhaps to compensate for my inability to read digital faces in dreams. It has a white face with silver straps, plain as you like. I am amazed that I could vividly remember its appearance in the dream. The hands were neon, good for reading in the mostly dark inside of a night taxi. I first read the time as the conversation in the taxi came to its inexorable slow down. It was close to 8. The night was still very very young, at least to me.
The driver then asked me if I would end the ride. I said that if he did not mind, we could keep this rolling. In the real world, I would have chalked up an astronomical fare. In the dreamscape, something told me that both of us enjoyed this ride and every other concern was trivial. The taxi man's paternal and rich presence was definitely good companionship, like time spent with a favourite uncle.
He complied, and the landscape outside my taxi changed. We were in lonely roads, with the occasional isolated house or drive-in dining outlets dotted all over. Talking makes for thirst. We both wanted a drink, oddly enough it was to be alcoholic.
He parked outside what I clearly identified as a 7 - 11. This outlet was the one very near my home in the past, open at all times and a wonderful companion to study nights. It was torn down eventually, and its absence left me bereaved for a short period of time. Now I see it in the dream, but it was in a secluded area nowhere near my home like it was in reality.
Also the 7 - 11 resembled the last time I visited it before closing: there were signs of packing up all over.
Taxi man waited in the car while I went to buy 2 bottles. I have a personal superstition on alcoholic beverages I get. Certain kinds of vodka would be bought and others avoided. I used to try a good variety, but I thought some labels were inauspicious and others had good vibes (I drink some brands and I would have a bad/boring night with friends, vice-versa). I had this superstition in mind as I bought the 2 luckiest labels I can find.
However, in defiance to what I normally do, I offered the luckiest brand to the driver and the 2nd luckiest to myself. I felt a twinge of annoyance at myself which disappeared quickly.
Blatantly, the taxi driver drunk-drove and while I just drunk. We exchanged lame jokes and alcohol-driven fun conversations. Time flew as his driving remained perfect and the landscape was still secluded wilderness. This process was punctuated by my glances at my watch. Time was consistently marching on.
We soon stopped at a different, better-stocked 7 - 11 that showed no indication of packing. 2 more bottles for us, but we stopped and sat at the curb this time, outside the outlet. No more driving, just sitting and talking. I looked at my watch: 5 minutes to midnight. Interaction continued.
After a short time, which I assume was 5 minutes before a new day arrived, the world around me disintegrated like how a Vitamin C pill fizzles and dissolves in water. Everything around me disappeared into washed whiteness as I gained awareness of reality and woke up.
Now What
Sorry for going on and on about this dream. I am painfully aware that this post is longer than most. However, there was much detail in this dream, and the transition of themes is most unusual. As are the settings involved. I hope this has at least been an entertaining read.
In any case, I hope for some good interpretations despite the challenging premise of dissecting so many aspects of a long dream in my afternoon nap. Here's to looking forward to some solid responses!
