Hi all! I'm going into this forum pretty blind, after a bit of fishing around for dream-related forums this one just felt more down my alley.

I'll be frank I'm kinda stumped on what to say here haha, I haven't dived into any forums in ages. I guess I'll start with the obvious on dreams- I've always been fascinated by them and I can't imagine life without them. Many of my most vivid memories are from dreams, and they've certainly made a mark on who I am today. I've always loved stories in all the different mediums they appear in, have been a bookworm in particular most my life, so it's easy to say I'm easily carried away by imagination and often have "my head in the clouds".
Right now I'm in my early 20's still trying to figure out what to do with my life- as I've alluded to my main passion is in storytelling, and I really love composing music. Well, and writing. And drawing, which I've settled for reducing into a hobby for now. Honestly I can't make up my mind aha I'm hoping to tie together my interests and make something worthwhile of it. My dreams have both been fueled by and have inspired my creative pursuits, so I would say that they are very important for me to be attuned to.
I should probably also mention, I've been really into Carl Jung ever since I discovered his works several years ago. Of course, I can't claim to fully understand most of his work, but I've grown close to several books of his, especially "Modern Man in Search of a Soul". I would consider myself a Jungian in that I look to his work as a reference point in trying to better understand myself and the nature of consciousness. Of course, I do my best to read critically despite how so "in-tune" I feel with him at times haha, it really was a life-changer for me discovering that.

Anyways...I've taken a more earnest approach in exploring lucid dreaming lately. Frankly, I think I'm pretty damn dysfunctional, that I can be my own worst enemy and critic and all that jazz, and that I really have trouble pursuing what's important to me because of it. I've felt especially stuck the past few months and have been in a nasty slump, and well, it can be pretty distressful not knowing where I'm going and put me in a pretty negative cycle.
I think that perhaps looking into my dreams can help me regain some clarity or inspiration and help me see what it is I need to deal with. Dreams are pretty honest, hard to hide stuff from yourself in there. Gotta face the ugly stuff, whatever it is.

Well, I'm probably rambling way more than I should, so I'll try to save it for some other topics. I definitely have a lot on my mind regarding dreams and many questions and just a general curiosity as to what kind of experiences others have had, how others may have changed and learned from their dreams, and so on. It's all very exciting to me- the potential within our dreams, how much we don't know. Well, it's getting pretty late here so I'm off to hit the hay, thanks for reading and hope to see you guys around here! Feel free to ask me any questions because I wrote this out pretty aimlessly aha might've missed some obvious stuff.