Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

Have you ever wondered about why you dream of certain things?

Dreams are kind of like flavors of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream: They consist of so many varieties. There are sweet dreams that you wish would last forever, nightmares that you can’t wait to wake up from, and dreams that just leave you wondering: What was that all about?

There are dreams that you can’t remember the instant you wake up, and there are dreams that are so realistic that you can recall every detail. Oftentimes you dream of familiar people, and oftentimes you dream of complete strangers.

Some people say that you dream about your thoughts and experience throughout the day. If you’ve had a wonderful day, you’ll have good dreams. If you’ve watched a scary movie, you’ll get nightmares. Personally, I have never found that to be the case. My dreams are quite random. However, I’ve realized that every time I’m sick, I get nightmares.

I absolutely hate having nightmares. In my nightmares, I can never run or yell for help; my screams sound like whispers and my legs always feel like they’re glued onto the ground. Just when I’m about to die in my dream, I wake up. I don’t think you can possibly die in your dream. If you die, whose life would you be dreaming about?

On the other hand, sweet dreams are the best. They allow me to live a fantasy life that I cannot have in the real world; maybe it consists of winning the lottery, or vacationing in the Bahamas, or even something like scoring a perfect on the SAT. Unfortunately, I eventually wake up to the obnoxious ring of my alarm clock. I’m always kind of disappointed after waking up from a good dream because poof, all the wonderful things in my dream world had just disappeared.

But then there are the completely random, out-of-nowhere dreams. I think they’re the most interesting because they’re just so odd. They’re the ones that you tell your close friends, who either end up laughing at you or giving you weird looks.

Dreams work through mysterious ways. Sometimes I wonder: How do I know that I’m not dreaming right now? And why do some people dream in color, while others dream in black and white?

Maybe some day we will be able to figure out why we dream about certain things. Maybe we’ll even learn to control our dreams. But until now, I’ll just pray that I won’t have any nightmares.

— Elaine Gu