Fire and Water for Elephants?

I hear that book is even better than Water for Elephants.. XP

A little about me as of lately.. This fall, I'm going to go to college, so as of now I'm kind of in limbo. I don't have a job, I don't want anything more to do with the town I live in or my family and I just want to go to college and get my own life started, so it's been kind of a vicious cycle of me getting motivated to do things and be happy, and then realizing that anything I start here will be pointless because I'm leaving in two months anyways.

Okay, so last night I had a dream that for some reason really made me curious to understand it better. Before I fell asleep, I had been on a lot of self-help websites looking into things like motivation and being happy and the like, because my life has been pretty blah as of lately. Just before I logged off, I happened on a page about sleep and lucid dreams, and I got all inspired and excited about starting up my dream journal again.

The first dream I woke up and remembered was this one. There were others following it, but I won't get into those. This is copied straight from when I jotted it down out of bed.

I was on a "ride" of sorts. Sara (nice friend of mine) was there, I believe. It started out as me viewing the story someone was telling me about a ride they'd been on, then melted into me actually being on the ride. We were all sitting in these seats on a floor in a regular room. A gigantic elephant began to approach us, and since it was at the same time a story someone was telling me I knew that the elephant was where things went wrong. He was spitting fire from his trunk to the ceiling, and so the audience had to spray him with a water hose, though I only remember me doing it.

I didn't want to get him mad so I made sure not to spray him in the eyes. However, things went wrong when he walked past the door he was really supposed to go into and approached the audience. He wasn't angry, he just walked slowly towards us, and then sat/laid down right in front of me, massive and wet. I didn't feel scared, I just thought it was odd. The elephant seemed really wise and calm, and it seemed like he was looking right at me the whole time. By then the ceiling had caught on fire from the elephant's trunk, as well as a lot of other bits of the building, and so I turned my hose up all the way to try and put it out.

After I put out most of the fires, everyone got up off the ride and walked into the room where the elephant had been planned to go. It was a big, round room, like a circus tent, and everyone hung this jewelry that they had brought to sell on the walls.

All the excess water was coming into this room so there was a massive, fast river thing that went down the stairs and went around the room's edge counterclockwise before piddling into nothing. I jumped in for some reason, and then I realized it was actually really fun. The water was fast but it was a smooth ride, and the water curved up and down, up and down, like hills or something. I remember zooming by people who were just standing in the current talking and hanging out, and wanting to be on my back as is good for rapids but not being able to turn off my belly. There were other people riding the water with me, too.

After that, it sort of jumps into a dream that felt like a different one. I think I woke up between the two. We were still in the same room, but the water was gone. I met an old friend, saw a crush but didn't talk to him, and broke some lady's pottery on accident..

Anyways, what I'm really curious about though, is the elephant. It was the first thing I tried to look into, but a lot of the dream dictionaries had different ideas about elephants. Good omens, bad omens, wisdom, memory, tough skin, all this stuff. There was lots of things about riding elephants, dead elephants, but not much about elephants breathing fire, hehe. Any help is appreciated! ^^;

Yeah a lot of stuff going on there, and I'm definitely no expert, but since you're focusing on the elephant I will too.

Now, I believe that a lot of things in dreams aren't too complex in the sense that why would our subconcious purposely trick us with obscure symbols? With that in mind, I think the elephant is supposed to represent something very significant in your life, something either unavoidable or with a great effect on your life. I think the fire, being distructive, yet not intended, means that whatever this is, it is causing damage just by being there- it isnt inherently bad but in this case its something you dont want right now.

The fact that the water comes by like some sort of Deus Ex Machina river and fixes everything and you're happy being swept by it makes me think that there is a quick end to this elephant problem coming soon, and that it will be fun and exciting when it does.

Now what do I think it all is given your backstory? The elephant is soul crushing boredom :P The river is the excitement of college and new beginnings, which will come soon and pretty much fix the boredom problem.