Recurring Dream
 

I have had a recurring dream for decades now - so often that sometimes I actually think it happened.

Basically my dream is that at some point after leaving law, I went back to my old law firm and worked as an “of counsel” for a couple years, to pay the bills while I was getting my business degree or looking for a finance job or something. I think the gist of the dream is that I’m back in a place where I used to be “somebody”, an up-and-coming partner, in the thick of the action, but now I’m an increasingly anonymous worker bee, just going to my little office and doing routine work for a paycheck, with fewer people who know me, as my former peers have moved up and the new associates just see me as the quiet, dependable, kind of anonymous, journeyman guy. Which is kind of how we viewed “of counsels” back then, actually. I’ll wake up from these dreams and struggle to remember when I was “of counsel”, and then my wife will tell me it never happened. I think the dream reflects my fears of getting old and of failure. That’s my psycho-dream-analysis, anyway.

Actually I left and never looked back, didn’t keep in touch with any of my former partners and associates, moved on to the next thing. I did find the long-dormant connection useful last year, when I needed a lawyer in Taiwan to handle my mom’s estate, and my old firm’s Taiwan office found me someone with the necessary specialization. Occasionally I get the firm’s “alumni” e-newsletter, which I don’t read. I think many of the older partners I worked with are passed now, and some of my former peers have died young, which is an occupational hazard for lawyers, or themselves quit the law. Maybe an alternate dream-analysis is along the lines of “you can’t go home again”.

I’ve never stayed in touch with “work friends” when leaving a school or a job or a career. The kind of lifelong networking that some people do, as they move from company to company, role to role, is foreign to me. Maybe my dream has something to do with that.

Anyone have this kind of recurring dream? Not a stress/anxiety dream - finding yourself pants-free or unprepared - but something more insidious?

I call that PTSD. Sorry, but I have similar dreams about former AF jobs. I have them, and can't get back to sleep.

Unfinished business comes to mind...

Stop looking back.

I only have one recurring dream (which seems to have gone away for good now). It’s one I’ve learned many apparently have.

I’m back in graduate school, and it’s coming up on finals, when I realize I had a class I signed up for but never went to. Sometimes it’s a class I meant to drop but never did, and sometimes it’s a class I knew I had but just decided to never go to for some unknown reason.

So now I need to take the final, without ever having been to the class. And, usually it’s my last semester and I need to pass the class to graduate.

My thoughts during the dream are usually “what was I thinking in getting into this situation?” And “how can I pass this test?” Along with some panic.

Also on dreams generally, my sense is I have a ton of dreams every night, but these days rarely remember any of them.

Why is it the recurring dreams are never the ones I'd like them to be?

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I keep dreaming I get drafted again. I try to explain I already served and the drill sergeant just shouts at me to get back in line.

Either that or I’m in college and haven’t been to class in so long I can’t remember where the classroom is.

I've had that same dream periodically - or another variation is there was a scheduled test that I forgot about!

Me too. Lots of corridors and doors and lockers.

Haha. I have almost exactly the same recurring dream, with one minor addition. I am only a few credits away from a post-post graduate degree but can never make it to the registrar to find out how many I am short.

I have 2 dreams and they are the same theme. I once had a '36 MG. At one time it was stored in a garage off my property. I dream I can't remember where that garage is. The other is my jr high locker. Can't remember where it is in the bank of identical lockers. Sometimes I'm still looking the next school year. I think this is the same idea as with the test thing.

I dream a lot. At least 3 a night that I could remember if I woke up and tried rather than rolling over and going back to sleep (never really all that awake, but knowing what the dream was for a fleeting second).

I had one dream that actually left me in a unique state of mind the next day. Kind of enlightened. I wish that could happen again.

I had that happen fairly recently. I told a few people about it, but they all looked at me like I was Great Aunt Edna telling a cute story about her kitty.

I have 3.
The first one is not being able to find my college classroom. I think this is because I basically stopped going as the part time job I had was paying well with more hours if I wanted them and paid more than job placement for graduates (business admin)
Second one is similar that I go to work and go to my office and no one notices that I haven't been there in a while. This one is from a job where I was offered a buyout and took it. Never even went in to empty my desk.
Third was the love that I let slip away.

I wonder if we should start a new thread, “What is your recurring car dream?”

I have another recurring dream that I have several old not necessarily, classic but great cars, that I used to own parked in various garage and lots throughout the city and naturally, of course I can’t remember where I parked them

Occasionally in the dream I’ll find one and find myself in a car I drove 30 years ago, remembering that fantastic feeling when I first got it and was driving it around town.

This dream sounds not-fun. Perhaps your subconscious is telling you that you are in a better place now. And if there is a further message, perhaps you are hearing a suggestion to pursue more networking. It does sound like a straightforward dream, as opposed to most others which are highly symbolic. Like riding on a flying giraffe while wearing handcuffs with a love interest who is a butterfly.

If you see a sign or piece of paper with writing on it, try to read the writing. When we dream, we cannot read. When you try to read and can't, then you might become aware you are dreaming. A lucid dream. Those are the best, because you are now in charge. From there, you can decide to fly. Dreams of flying are a blast.

Yep, that one too. This seems like a common theme. What's up with that?

Maybe OCD?
All of my projects need to be put to bed and I can't have too many going at once.

So many of the dreams described reveal inner feelings that we are not as accomplished/successful/liked as we actually are.
From two and a half decades with the dairy, my dreams are of walking into a major account and finding all or part of our section empty and then going through the endless back section of the store looking for the walk in fridge in hopes the milk is there. Either that or I am driving a truck I used to own over snow covered roads.
It is just our brain clearing out old crap.

Best
Les

Where's Joseph when we really need him?

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The one I have often is I'm getting onto a walk on Ferry from Germany to Denmark with a whole lot of other travellers (we are all about 28 years old - always) and I suddenly realise I haven't checked out of my hotel and all my stuff is back there. AND I haven't got quite enough time to go back sort it.

I’ve also had the “can’t find school locker” one many times.

In my dream I’m thinking “this makes no sense, how can I have not gone to my locker for so long that I’ve forgotten where it is?”

I never come up with an answer to that question, and I don’t think I ever find the locker.

I find it interesting that so many people have the same recurring dreams.

Theres that one where I am worshiped as a sun god with thousands of naked women throwing little picles at me

That count?

That is very interesting about the lockers or other lost (or forgotten and suddenly remembered) objects. I can tell you that these dreams are the most frustrating of all.

On the clearing out, why do we continue to repeat the dream? BTW, I haven't had the locker dream for a long time. I do dream often enough about construction, specifically home improvement, which was my career. The frustrating crap I dream about is likely reality nowadays.

Image if you could control your dreams. We'd end up in pods.

I have that same dream except they are throwing huge cucumbers.

I kept having that same dream for several years after being discharged from the Army. I'd find myself back in uniform trying to explain that I've already served my time, but no one will listen. Thankfully, haven't had it for a long time now.

Once had a dream that was two levels deep...in it, I awoke from a dream while already in another dream. I thought that was pretty cool, but it's never happened to me again.

By observing the body movements of a fetus, such as rapid eye movement and the twitching of limbs, some scientists believe that dreaming can occur even while still in the womb. Having had no experiences or memories at that point to draw upon, it's thought that the dreaming process might be one way for the fetal brain to establish connections with the body's nervous system.

That’s virtual reality/the metaverse, coming in the not too distant future.

Thanks.

I'll place my orders early. Five Swedish girls please.