“When we are asleep in this world, we are awake in another.” This quote by Salvador Dali describes the curious nature of dreams, which has fascinated humans for hundreds of thousands of years. Part of the reason for this is probably how unique everyone’s dreams feel. With this in mind, what do people in the Seabury community dream about?
The answer to this question is a lot of things. Seventh grader Yash Boolani shares his dreams, saying, “The Warriors winning an NBA championship and the Royals winning the World Series … also beating Trey in a one-v-one … I could taunt him for the rest of his life, and I’d go to his funeral and be like, ‘Trey, I’m sorry you died, but I beat you in one-v-one, I’m better than you at basketball’ … Those are my dreams when I sleep.”
Senior Sydney Walter describes one of her recent dreams: “It was probably, as of recent, my cousin and I were hanging out outside of my house, and there was this tiger that came up and took a nap with us, and then we woke up in my parents’ bed. But the tiger was a person. And then I went [and] hung out with my friends, and for some reason, it stuck with me,” she says.
Describing her most memorable dream, faculty member Elizabeth Sullivan says, “It’s from my childhood; from the time I was in elementary school all the way to high school, this dream would reoccur … The dream was that I was on a game show, ‘The Price is Right’ … It’s a pretty short dream, and all I remember is that I was on the game show, and the wheel that you spin at the end … became enormous, huge, like Ferris wheel size. And it was in the side of a huge mountain, and … I was in this Ferris wheel. And it’s a really scary dream actually, kind of a nightmare. The Ferris wheel was spinning. It was crashing into the mountain. So, it was me watching, getting ready to crash into this mountain. And I don’t think I ever did. I think I always woke up.”
Regarding his own repeating dreams, junior Aven Handshy says, “I had … a recurring dream when I was ten or eleven where I was in a parking garage, getting chased by this big blue monster. It looked like Sulley from ‘Monsters, Inc.’ That was it. But it happened twice.”
Eighth grader Alex Tsoflias says, “I don’t vividly remember any [dreams]. I know I’ve had several where I was travelling, like I was on a plane or something.”
Some people have had lucid dreams, which is when you are conscious of the fact that you are dreaming. When asked about this, senior Sydney Walter says, “I have, and it’s really, really weird, and you can control your dream, and I’ve figured out how to wake myself up to get out of bad dreams, which is something I’m grateful to have. I don’t know how I did it.”
For most, this is not a frequent occurrence. When asked the same question, Handshy says, “I have, but not since I was like six.”
Seaburians also question the meaning of dreams. Sullivan says, “I’m a big believer that dreams are definitely our subconscious trying to work things out from our waking life, and they can be used to kind of give you clues about maybe some topics that you’re trying to work out in your real life … I think dreams mean things for sure, but I think they’re typically really personal and maybe not all the time clear.”
Handshy also believes that dreams have meaning, saying, “I think a lot of times they’re kind of like a reflection of things you heard the day before, or like a movie you watched, or something you did before, something you were thinking about. I don’t think they hold prophetical meaning or anything like that, but I think they have meaning.”
When asked the same question, Boolani says, “No, unless the Warriors win the championship this year.”
Some believe that dreams can predict the future in some way. Walter says, “I’ll get deja vu through [dreams], and it’ll be like, something will happen in my dream; I’m like, ‘that’s a weird looking shed.’ And then three, four weeks, maybe a couple months later, we’ll be driving down some back roads to get somewhere, and I’ll be like, ‘oh my goodness, I’ve seen that shed before.’ It’s creepy. It’s so creepy.”
When asked about this, Boolani says, “Yes, I predicted the Warriors winning the championship in 2022, and they did, so yes.”
Therefore, whether it be airplanes, giant ferris wheels, monsters or the NBA championship, dreams are a part of what makes you you.
