did I just miss becoming lucid?

So for the past week or so I haven't had any hints of approaching lucidity and my dreams have been murky. But last night I kept waking up and eventually I ended up in a dream that was very clear. I was in class and a professor was teaching and berating us, and I remember clearly his leather pants and wondering where I could get a pair. Then I realized that this was not my professor, he was way younger and slimmer, about my age. But instead of figuring out I was dreaming, I just "figured" that some other professor was teaching the class.
Do you think I was coming close to lucidity? :(

No, this stuff happens all the time. Logic is totally impaired in dreams.

i think you came close, if only you could have asked yourself "am i dreaming?"
I've had several lucid dreams in the past and lately i haven't been able to have any since i started researching all the crazy things we can explore in them. I keep having the same experiences like you.

I know one thing that you can do is start training yourself to gain awareness when you sleep. You can do things like continuously ask yourself in real life if your dreaming, and if you can get into the habit of doing this, you will start to do it while you're sleeping.

Another trick you can try is if in your dreams, you realize something isn't quite right you can remind yourself to look at a clock, or look at your hands. These things are distorted in our dreams. I've read that when we look at a clock in our dream, it doesn't make sense, the numbers are backwards or they're just not numbers at all.

Hope some of this helps. Don't give up! you're bound to go lucid sooner or later. :)