In real life, a chemistry lab report is due tomorrow. In my dream, I must have awoken from my nap, except oversleeping by a long shot. It was already time for school the next day. After sleeping so long, I forgot about my lab report. When I got to school, everything seemed normal to me. The bell rang, and everyone headed off to his or her first period class. When I got to room 409, a line had accumulated outside the door. I saw Andy and greeted him. He then asked me, "Did you finish your lab report?" That was when it hit me.
I saw Ken Kawamoto and I told him the news. I told him I would go to the library to do the lab now and when I finished, I would take a late pass. He said he'd go with me.
The library in my dream was merged with the commons. It was an open area with rectangular tables (like those in the Kocotter's room) and chairs around them. We found Alan Jiang sitting at a table and we joined him. Then the librarian saw us and approached the table. She blabbered on about something and kept us from our work. Alan had a laptop which he let us use.
Ken already did his share of the lab report, so I flipped through his work to see what he had omitted. Oh boy. There was still a lot left to do. Calculations, among other things. I needed to do research on the Internet for a question, and the sites I visited all sent me around in circles. I encountered a whole bunch of dead and circuitous links. Whatever. I opened up Microsoft Word and started composing my responses. There was a blank sheet of paper lying around, so I asked Ken to get started on the calculations while I worked on the questions. We had always typed our calculations in the past, but that takes way more time than we had right then so handwriting them was our only option.
The librarian came around again and informed us that 1st period was only 20 minutes. I thought to myself, is today a half day? No. Delayed opening? Um...no, or else our lab report would probably be done by now. Then I thought, HSPAs. Ah, that must be it. Then I realized we were screwed. We had already spent at least 10 minutes surfing an unaccomodating Internet.
Just as a movie has a scene switch, my dream underwent a transition. All of sudden, it was just Ken and me at a personal workspace - like those against the bookshelves toward the far right of the library. We still had our computer with us. Except now our desk was in the cafeteria/FBLA school store/gymnasium/perpendicular-to-the-400-wing corridor. We were to the right of the doors that have been blocked off due to construction.
T walked out of a classroom near us and headed toward the blocked off half of the 200 wing. Somehow, in the dream, we could see around the bends between our corridor and the 200 wing. T opened the door to the blocked off section and started talking, looking off down the hallway, as if he were still teaching a class. He smiled his smile and laughed his laugh, and then he saw us. I thought I saw what went through his mind. It was probably "What the heck are these two fellas doing out in the hallway during first period? Don't they have some class to go to?" And then he must've saw all our papers strewn in front of us and the computer we were using. The next thought would've been, "Oh, procrastinators."
The next thing was some commotion down by the restrooms outside the gymnasium. Dr. Siebert opened his door to have a look and then he saw Ken and me. In a stern voice, he asked, "What are you two doing down there?" Knowing it was over, we trudged into 409 with our heads down. Ken said I should go tell Dr. Siebert what happened. Dejected, I approached him. I saw Brianna Greenwald talking with him. As I approached, I made out what she said. She was saving me some trouble by explaining to him how we had procrastinated and were skipping class to finish our chemistry lab report. When I got near, Dr. Siebert turned his attention to me and I explained to him how Ken had done his share of work but I had fallen asleep. I didn't bother explaining to him how we were skipping class to finish the report because I knew he already knew. He sort of grumbled a bit and said he'd let us off the hook for this one. However, he told us he wanted the completed lab e-mailed to him before the end of that day. Then my mind started spinning and thinking how long I could procrastinate from now until midnight before I'd have to work on the chemistry lab again.
This dream is fairly reflective of me. Procrastination is the central theme and that defines much of me. Then there's letting friends down. Not upholding my own responsibilities. However, in real life, Ken would have called my cell and woken me up with the call. Wow, Ken called my cell right after I typed "However,". About the chemistry lab. I'm telling ya, there's gotta be some unifiying, connecting force in the universe. There's gotta be more than coincidence. Probability doesn't cut it. Some happenings are just too out there. And the frequency of such things is uncanny. It must be the intertwined connections this universal network has. The butterfly effect? Something crazy like that. Anyways, it's a really cool thing when it happens. And I believe in luck. I think it's related. Okay, end of tangent.
Next, sometimes I feel I'm manipulative of my friends. Borrowing Alan's laptop? Telling Ken to do the calculations part that were my responsibility? Then, there's the sense of great annoyance when people keep me from doing my work, especially at times when there's something urgently needing completion. The annoyance must've turned the librarian's thoughtful insights into blabber. Self-consciousness is next. Yo, letting T see us, particularly me (self-consciousness again, disregard for others), makes such a bad impression on his mind. Ugh, I'm so embarrassed.
Honesty plus sincerity plus adherence to morals and principles equals Brianna. She heard me talk to Andy and Ken. She knew what we were up to. As a bystander witnessing a crime, it was against her conscience to let the act go unreported. What a great person. Then, there's the good in everyone. Or so I believe. Dr. Siebert excused us for this one screw-up. Everyone slips up from time to time. I try my best not to make it a habit.
Idealized fantasy? Perhaps. But it is such a true image of my self and my perspective of reality.
P.S.: Time to get started on my chemistry lab so this dream doesn't come true!