That Dream Again

So had that dream again. You know the one. It's where I suddenly realize that I have a math final and I haven't been to class in about six weeks. To add to the drama, I really need a passing grade or I won't graduate. I have the dream once or twice a year.

I think everyone has this dream in one form or another, but for me it's always a math test. I guess that shouldn't be surprising since calculus and I didn't get along very well in college. The first time I took Calculus I got a D, which was a shock to my ego. I suppose it would have been less embarrassing if I had skipped the last six weeks of the semester, but I didn't. I mostly went to class and sort of did the homework. I just wasn't as good at math as I thought I was and needed to work MUCH harder. Getting a D didn't sit well with me. I took that bad boy again, got a B+, declared victory over mathematics, and never set foot in a math classroom again.

I thought I had defeated math, but math is still out there lurking. Haunting my dreams. Waiting to get revenge.

The dream is always the same. It starts with the realization that I have this final coming up, but I never actually get to the final exam. I'm perpetually stuck in the anxiety-filled, oh-my-God-what-am-I-going-to-do phase. I always wake up before the final. Heck, I always wake up before really doing much of anything besides panicking and wondering how I managed to go six weeks without making it to class. (Maybe I'm a meth addict in my dreams? It would explain a lot.) Anyway, after waking up I remind myself that I'm not actually taking a math class (this can be surprisingly difficult) and that I've already graduated from college almost 20 years ago.

If I'm going to continue to have this dream, I'd like it to end better. Instead of me being all anxious and whiny, I'd like to go into a Rocky-like training montage, complete with a kick ass soundtrack. The dream would cut to scenes of me studying, me working problems, me doing flash cards, and culminate with me running up some long steps where I smash a calculator to smithereens when I reach the top. Then I'd take the final, win the approval of my math professor, and be carried out of the classroom in triumph on the shoulders of my fellow students. All while Eye of the Tiger plays in the background.

Now THAT would be a dream.