Saturday, April 13, 2013

A Recent Dream

My dreams are becoming more vivid and realistic lately. I don't know the reasons, and regardless that's not what this post is about. I just wanted to touch on one in particular.

I had this vision of a high school party. Not like I ever went to parties in high school, but regardless. I went to a fairly large high school - graduating class of ~550 - but for the most part, it seemed like everyone knew everyone. Even if you weren't friends, you had at least heard of everyone else. So parties were just everyone coming together, in a different social setting, with people they already knew. You didn't meet a lot of new people, you just hung out with others in a new context.

Then you get to college - at least my school, Clemson, there's no possible way you know everybody here. When you go to a party, you know your friends, you might know that random kid from your freshmen math class or the person from Harcombe you've made up a nickname for, but with all the different friend circles, there's bound to be new people to meet regardless of your social network. You hang with your friends, but you also spend a good amount of time and energy meeting new people - because they expand your network, give you something interesting to do, and grab your attention.

Now we get to my dream. It was odd, completely devoid of context to awake me, and a strange scenario. But it's stuck with me a couple days, and I've enjoyed the thought process it has drawn out of me. In this dream, I was at a college party, full of the plentiful mix of friends and strangers, but there was also a girl from my high school there. In my dream, I was fixated on her. She seemed radiant, interesting; I spent the whole dream-party just talking to her and ignoring everyone else. Not too exciting of a dream, and normally one that I would brush aside right away, or even completely forget in the morning. But for some reason, this dream has stuck with me the past few days.

 It's an interesting dichotomy for me. If it were a typical high school party (which I acknowledge my lack of experience with), she would have just been another classmate. Someone I knew, but wasn't too close with. I would have known most everybody, so she wouldn't have stuck out to me. At a typical college party, I would mingle with a lot of people, and not spend too much time on one person. But something about the combination of the two - someone I knew from high school, being in an element where I would completely not expect her to be. So surprising, so unexpected, it just drew me in, and I couldn't tear myself away - all while within a dream.

Perhaps this only has merit with someone who goes to college so far away, that only one girl here actually attended my high school. If you go to Penn State or Temple, or some other state school, I imagine it's a typical sight to see high school friends at a party and think nothing of it. Maybe it's just my own particular scenario, and my delving into it is completely unique. It's just a dream, after all. And all things considered, a rather silly one at that. In my dream, I went to a party, saw a girl I knew, and talked to her the whole night. Not too groundbreaking, there. It's more so the fact that this dream has lingered in my psyche the past few days, I suppose, than anything else.

Regardless, I haven't posted a blog in a long time. Maybe this is just my quick way of trying to get back into it a bit, at 2:00 AM on a Saturday, one month before I graduate. Maybe I'm just crazy. Maybe it's Maybelline.

Goodnight, y'all.