Back to School

Today's Google search: "dreaming about being lost in school."

Does anyone else dream about being back in school? Mine have been frequent lately. Without fail, I'm always lost. The school is ginormous and the hallways are endless with numbers that don't seem to go in sequence. The last dream I had similar to this, I was trying to find lunch with Khloe Kardashian. Last night, I couldn't find my class after leaving to go to the bathroom and I had left my backpack at my desk. There were two girls that I went to high school with in this dream. There was also a salesman that I worked with at Don Ayres in this dream. The one girl liked the boy from Don Ayres and he liked her too. But, I was certain that if she'd get out of the way, he'd like me. HA!

In my Google search I found that dreaming about being back in school is actually very common. Here's one article I found about Dream Interpretation. It said:

Dreaming Lens:  How do you feel about being back in this time period?  Are you experiencing anxiety or nostalgia for days gone by?  Are you experiencing yourself as noticed or invisible; stuck or safe?  Are you with present-day friends, or your high school circle?

Personal Focus:  The primary symbolic meaning for this image is deeply connected to your own personal experience of this period in your life.  In a general sense, high school is where most of us learned life lessons of responsibility, sexual identity as well as where we built the foundation for the directions we took as grownups.  However, the overall experience of this turbulent time varies from person to person and can range from fun and joyous to excruciatingly painful.  When you dream of high school in a dream, your unconscious is expressing emotional issues that have their root at this time in your history.

As a common dream, most people experience this related to performance anxiety.  High school represents the first time as individuals that most people are faced with a level of responsibility that is most like what we deal with in the adult world.  When our current lives spark insecurity about our readiness to face life’s tests, we may express unconscious fears by returning unprepared to this time and suffer the humiliation of being lost, not knowing the schedule, not being ready for an exam, or even finding ourselves naked.

The lessons faced in adolescence were, for some, accompanied by mistakes being cleared up for us by parents or other authority figures.  As such, this dream image could indicate an unconscious wish to have the burden of adult responsibilities magically disappear as if someone else could handle them for us.  If the dream is uncomfortable, look to present stressors that may feel burdensome in the same way you felt as a teenager.  The pressure to perform at certain levels is a major theme of the high school experience.  This may be revealing issues of performance anxiety in your current life.  Inherent in this image is the fear of facing the expectations that others may have of you.  Examine your current life for issues of this nature and you will be well on your way to an accurate interpretation.

Here's another good one about being back at school.

Stress Dream: Back at School and Can’t Find Your Class or Locker

To be fair, there are tons of variations of the back-at-school dream, so I conducted a poll on my Facebook fan page to find out which variation is the most common. Not being able to find your class or locker came in at number one. Almost all back-at-school dreams can be connected to job stress; however, the one where you can’t find your class or locker is more specifically connected to the stress of not being where you feel you should be in your career or job. Your locker is your place at school because it is designated for just you, and your class is where you need to be and show up on time. When you can't find your locker or your class in a dream, it's a good indication you are feeling uncertain of your place at work or even uncertain of your career choice. In these dreams we tend to feel the pressure of finding our locker and getting to our class before the bell rings. That’s the slippery element of time showing up in our dreams again, which suggests we feel time is running out on us in real life, and we need to get ourselves where we need to be in the career department before it’s too late.  

These could not be more spot on. While I like my job, I do not feel secure. Why? Because I have not had insurance since 2009. It is not offered where I work and is simply too expensive for me to obtain on my own. Also, I am no where near where I think I should be salary wise. I continue to look for employment, but it is really hard to find a place that offers everything I believe I am worth.

In the second article it says "In these dreams we tend to feel the pressure of finding our locker and getting to our class before the bell rings. That's the slippery element of time showing up in our dreams again, which suggests we feel time is running out on us in real life, and we need to get ourselves where we need to be in the career department before it's too late."

I don't know that I think it's too late for me to get where I need to be in my career. I almost feel like I am right where I need to be to finally start making what I am worth. However, I do find the time element true in my love life. When I think that I will be 40 in three years, it does scare me that I have not found someone to share my life with.

I will say that every article I read said that dreaming about being lost relates to having anxiety in your life. As if I needed my subconscious to tell me that.

Anyone else have reoccurring dreams and looked up their meaning?