Dreams

Dreams

It was a quiet and peaceful afternoon, the trees hung over the path that I was walking on. The clouds like marshmallows amidst a seamlessly never ending sky of blue. I look around at the nature surrounding me. If you listen closely you could hear the buzzing of bees and other creatures whirring about from one flower or tree, to another. It’s almost hypnotizing. Being alone. With nothing but your thoughts and the cold wind of a late October day. The only thing breaking the silence were your feet hitting the ground and the sounds of nature. You could continuously feel the sense of an overwhelming peace. All the sudden you hear someone yelling wake up, and you are instantaneously transported back to reality.

Some people define dreams as a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. But for some, dreaming can be much more than that. For some, dreaming can distinguish a connection between the subconscious and reality. Think about it. Unless you have a mental disorder like schizophrenia, your brain does not have a voice. So some interpret dreaming to be the brains outlet for making sense of reality. But I also find it strange that the way we all dream is somehow linked. We all have dreams where it feels like we are falling or perhaps getting chased. And we all have the dreams where we wish we would never wake up. Where things are as they should be and all is perfect, almost like a fairytale. I’ve always had a fascination with these dreams. How our minds betray our bodies and use our perception of reality and our deepest hopes and desires in a ruthless battle of the mind. How one fairytale and a dream can send us into a phase of wanting it to come true. Because somehow getting a glimpse of something perfect makes us feel like our lives could be perfect. But after five minutes of being awake, your dream fades. That glimpse of something perfect so easily disappeared. The dream so clear and vivid a few minutes ago fades as quickly as a message that was written on a foggy mirror. On the other side of that, it always seems like the nightmares never go away. Is this because perfection is harder to obtain than disaster? How perfection is a lifelong struggle, but in a single second you can make a choice that ruins your life? Many scientists and oneirologists have found that dreams associated with intense feelings or emotions tend to stay longer. For example, the emotion of fear. People tend to remember things going wrong more than things going right. I've always thought that was strange. Shouldn't we want to remember the good? Shouldn't we want to remember the perfection rather than the disaster, But our dreams remain forgotten and our nightmares are the ones we fight to forget. Over the years, people have used the term dreams in various aspects. The most common way this term is used is to talk about what your goals and hopes are. What you wish to come true every day. It may be your dream to become a doctor or an actress or maybe a lawyer. Or maybe your dream is to win the next basketball game or set a record in track. But some use the term to define things that may never come true. Just like dreaming, that fairytale or glimpse of perfection can sometimes be a distorted reality. People use dreams in the context of “in your dreams” as a remark to someone who wants the impossible to come true. You can dream about riding a unicorn in space but it may not come true. I believe that the difference between dreaming and a dream in reality is the action put forth to make the dream come true. After all, Walt Disney said “ all your dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them”. If we put the action behind the dreams we have, and work and pursue them, your dreams can become your reality.