Just A Dream

Sometimes dreams are more preferable to reality. There are some dreams you have, then wake up and try your very best to sleep back just so you can pick it up from where you left off. You end up accepting that you’d probably never have that dream again though — however difficult it may be. While some other times, dreams make your reality seem a bit more appealing than usual. Dreams that you wake up from and think “maybe my life’s not so bad after all.” Our dreams are the gift of living different lives and having different experiences, without the consequences. I once had a dream where I killed a man and was sentenced to life in prison. I found myself going through the motions of regret, depression, even up to considering suicide, only to wake up to my dorm room with unfinished assignments on my table, and my phone buzzing with alerts of assignment deadlines, looming tests, and inconveniently rescheduled classes. I heaved a sigh of relief, and was filled with gratitude for my normal life with normal problems. Some dreams are just able to do that.

I also remember a dream that felt like I was in it for a very long time. I had a very adorable pet, a decent job, and workplace friends. The dream ended with a close friend losing his life in a drive-by shooting, and me plotting revenge against the perpetrators. I even remember losing my pet in the said dream. Imagine waking up from that! I had to take a couple of minutes to internally debate what was real and what wasn’t, because for a dream, it felt too real. I remember feeling legitimate grief for the loss of a pet and friend I had in my dream. There are many theories concerning the nature of dreams and whatnot. Some say dreams are some sort of window to parallel realities. Others say dreams are a product of some dashing mix of real-world subconscious cues. And then there are folks that argue that dreams are a window to the supernatural, and may have prescient traits. I can’t really disagree with any of these (or any other) theories concerning dreams. Dreams are indeed mysterious and they constantly keep me aware of things that elude our current understanding of reality and existence.

However, dreams are very important for the human experience. Albert Camus emphasizes the quantity of human experiences in relation to living a fulfilled life in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Camus considers a life with bountiful experiences a fulfilled one, and although it may sound like a stretch, I genuinely believe that our dreams could make up for the diversity of experiences we lack in real life. For example, I didn’t know how it would feel like to genuinely want to take your life until I had a dream where I felt that way. Dreams can make you appreciate the little things about your life. Dreams can also make you aware of things to hope for in your life. Sometimes we get dreams of love — a love never experienced before, or a long lost love. Those kinds of dreams remind you that love is an actual authentic feeling, and it feels really nice. The scary dreams are also important too, because you get to wake up to a world where you are not forced to read a 500-page romance novel, or where the wristband you have been wearing for over three years didn’t suddenly cut. It makes your current problems pale in comparison to what could have been.

Dreams are an essential part of being human. I make sure to tell my brain that I appreciate the cinematic effort it puts into the making of my dreams. I also like how it challenges my thoughts with very weird renditions of real life situations. I should probably start keeping a dream journal, but I have made peace with the fact that I lack the dedication to waking up every morning and writing about whatever weird fleeting dream I had. However, like in the real-world, there is a lesson in every experience, and an experience is only worth the time if you can learn something from it, doesn’t matter if it’s a dream or not. However obscure, beautiful, or weird a dream may seem, I make sure to dwell on it a bit and let it sink in, because I think it deserves to be something more than just a dream.