Anyone still get Back to School dreams despite graduating X years ago?

[mreddie]

Last night, I got a dream where I back in elementary school and it was so vivid, it was like mental time travel. Things changed a bit from what I remembered but I dunno, felt like a good dose of calm.

Remembering dreams is tricky but since this is freash and the brain is fascinatingly complex, anyone remember similar dreams?

 

[thetrin]

Oh yeah, I graduated college 15 years ago, and I still get dreams where I either can't find my schedule and don't know my next class, or it's exam time and I realize there's a math class I've never attended up until now, and now I'm fucked on attendance and the exam.

 

[sephghast]

Yep, it's a recurring dream of mine to be back in high school but most of the people in the high school are people I'm involved with now. In the dreams, I always have a class that I had not been studying for or working on and I feel like I'm about to fail it. I've googled it around and it's a common reoccurring dream.

 

[hurroocane]

They have become rarer over time but yeah that stuff haunted me my entire 20s.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

I get them, but it's never anything weird. It's like my friends and I just hanging out during lunch or after school. Then I'm like wait, I'm in my 30's, wtf 😖

 

[Squarehard]

All the time but I think that's because I'm a teacher, so it's not like I ever really left school. Collateral damage dreams!

 

[Deleted member 49611]

left school in 2009. probably have had the odd dream of being back in school but none that i can remember.

i hated school at the time but i miss it so much. i'd love to relive those days. oh well.

 

[CountAntonio]

It's my most reoccurring dream. It's always high school and It's basketball day in PE. I either can['t find my locker or don't remember the code. It's always anxiety filled and I never get to play. I'm 40 btw. Left a lot of dreams back there I guess.

 

[Dr. Mario]

Not anymore. They disappeared about ten years after graduating high school and uni respectively. I think they're tied with imposter syndrome. At some point in your thirties you realize everyone is an imposter and it's no longer a fear.

 

[Bigg]

Oh yeah, like literally once a week. Maybe more. And it's been a decade since I went to college.

It's almost always some variant of me realizing the final exam for a class I forgot I signed up for is tomorrow

I generally have a long habit of stressing over deadlines and procrastinating way too much due to anxiety and such and my brain decided The School Dream is the easiest way to manifest this in my subconscious I guess

 

[Bilb Ono]

Yep. One of these days I'm gonna actually know where my classes are on the first day.

 

[Orayn]

I finished my last semester of college in 2014 and I have a dream about falling behind and failing a class about once a week. Being back in high school and not remembering my locker combo is another common one.

 

[Pau]

Almost nightly. Probably because I was bullied in middle school. Don't get as many dreams set in high school, but there are still enough. Even less in college.

At this point I'm aware that it's a dream and that I'm 30 years old and so is everyone else, but for some reason I'm still forced to sit through the damn thing. The awareness isn't complete, since I've tried to convince my other classmates to revolt. :P ("We're all fucking old and already finished high school and probably undergrad. Some of us did grad school. Why are we still in Ms. Whatever's 7th grade science class?!")

 

[Gambit61]

I had a dream a while back I was walking through the hallways and realized I had somehow forgotten to attend one class for nearly an entire semester lol.

 

[BassForever]

They happen less as I get older, but every once and awhile I forget about a final exam or I'm missing one credit to graduate and will lose my post graduation job offer.

 

[Thisisme]

Yup. I have dreams where I somehow didn't get enough credits so I have to go back with the younger students and take a make-up class.

 

[TaySan]

Not really my school years were never great, to begin with. Middle school in particular with bullying.

 

[Pau]

Not really my school years were never great, to begin with. Middle school in particular with bullying.

Click to shrink...

That's exactly why I get these dreams so much. I imagine the reason I don't have that many dreams about undergrad is because I was actually happy and not a mess during those times.

These kinds of dreams suck so I'm glad you don't get them.

 

[SilentEagle]

I graduated from college in 2020 and I still have dreams about some final exams of toughest classes (Analysis of Algorithms).

 

[krae_man]

 

[Jmdajr]

Fuck yeah I do. It sucks.

Sometimes I wonder if I ever really graduated.

 

[KoolAid]

I have had dreams where I forgot to do my homework then woke up in panic because I had to do it before class... only to remember I am not studying anything at the moment

 

[WordsAndDreams]

Oh yeah, I graduated college 15 years ago, and I still get dreams where I either can't find my schedule and don't know my next class, or it's exam time and I realize there's a math class I've never attended up until now, and now I'm fucked on attendance and the exam.

Click to shrink...

Yup. I have dreams where I somehow didn't get enough credits so I have to go back with the younger students and take a make-up class.

Click to shrink...

These are literally the same exact ones I have. Also sometimes I can't remember my locker combo while running late and no one seems to be able to help me.

 

[Koukalaka]

Occasionally, yes. Sometimes I'll even wake up and for a second think "need to get the uniform out, it's a school day" before I'm fully awake.

 

[AlexBasch]

Yeah, I still have nightmares about me not enlisting to the last class/subject I need to finish college, so I'd have to wait until next semester.

Finished college in 2013. Had that dream a month ago.

 

[Lafazar]

Students

xkcd.com

I'm a teacher now, so now I'm the one responsible for doing this to others. At least I don't have that dream anymore myself...

 

[Deleted member 31873]

Yeah, 15 years since finishing uni. It can be one (or a combination) of the following variations:

• I've lost my time table and don't know where to go for my lesson.
• I forgot to bring materials (books, pens, etc.) so I can't do any work.
• I'm failing or retaking a certain subject (usually maths).
• An assignment is due today but I haven't started it yet.

Another common dream is that it's 4 PM on Christmas Eve and I haven't started buying gifts for anyone yet. I can have these dreams in June; doesn't really matter how close to Christmas it is.

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

I was really bad the first month or so after I graduate from both Undergrad and Grad School. I still occasionally will get those dreams or anxiety that there was some assignment I needed to complete lol

 

[MegaRockEXE]

No. Never. I enjoyed school as much as anyone else, but it never caused me such stress that I still dream about it years later.

 

[P-Bo]

Always, except my dreams are me being back in my shitty college, reset to year 1--and it is a nightmare that makes me break out in a cold sweat, whenever I wake up

 

[LostSkullKid]

I graduated 10 years ago. More than half my dreams are about school.

 

[criteriondog]

Yes and I absolutely hate it, it makes me panic in my dreams, despite me being asleep and kind of stresses me out when I wake up.

 

[TheBaldEmperor]

As soon as i finished my MA they stopped. They were terrible up to that point.

 

[Solo]

I occasionally will have a dream where I failed a course in my final semester of university and didn't get my degree.

I graduated 14 years ago.

 

[Kino]

Yup. I still have dreams where I'm taking an exam and don't know any of the answers

 

[Jonathan Lanza]

Happens fairly often. It's always the same; I didn't finish last nights homework and now the teacher is going to publicly humiliate me by telling everyone in the class how I'm such a huge fucking lazy loser for not finishing it.

I'll never get why teachers were so mean to grade schoolers.

 

[ClutchAnderson]

My wife says that she still has nightmares where she's in class and either didn't study for some huge test or like forgot her homework or smthn. I'm recently back in school at 30+ and when I'm awake is enough for me lmao.

 

[Miss Piggy]

I sometimes dream about my final high school maths exam where I didn't know anything because I didn't study for it and didn't understand it, which is an accurate representation of what actually happened.

I have the last laugh now because I always have a calculator in my pocket in the form of a smartphone or there's Google.

 

[The Albatross]

My most recurring nightmare, yep. Have had them solid for 20 years.

The dream is usually that I skipped this one class for the whole semester/year, and it's the last week of school and I've gotta show up for the finals... but I can't find the class, I don't even know what the class is, I'm in a random class and I realize it's the wrong one, and I'm going to fail the final, flunk the class, not get into college or not graduate from college, then lost my job..... And then as soon as I get to the thought process of lose my job, it kinda triggers my memory and I realize i've been working for 15+ years... and that I graduated from college and that this is a drea.....

BOOM I'M AWAKE

 

[Mekanos]

Constantly. The one I've had a lot recently is I'm halfway through the semester and there's a class I was taking but didn't know about. Probably speaks to my general anxiety that I'm forgetting important tasks.

Happens fairly often. It's always the same; I didn't finish last nights homework and now the teacher is going to publicly humiliate me by telling everyone in the class how I'm such a huge fucking lazy loser for not finishing it.

I'll never get why teachers were so mean to grade schoolers.

Click to shrink...

I remember my third grade teacher who was otherwise really nice and cool would turn into a drill instructor if you screw up. I turned in a piece of paper with a small fold in the corner and he grabbed it, crumpled it up, then said "see, you wouldn't hand in a paper looking like that, right?"

 

[NekoFever]

I thought everyone had dreams about having an assignment or exam they'd forgotten about. I left school 20 years ago and still get it occasionally.

On the plus side, the relief when you realise it was a dream is lovely.

 

[Pyccko]

Every person I know has recurring school-based anxiety dreams


really glad I didn't go to school

 

[Lunchbox-]

1. in high school/college where i've not studied for a test or didn't drop a class and forgot

2. my brakes don't work while driving

3. have to run from something or rush somewhere but legs won't move

 

[sredgrin]

Last couple years of HS I was a major slacker / depressed and barely graduated despite doing well in classes I did actually attend / try in. I still have panic nightmares about staying an extra year because I ditched gym class too much.

 

[ClearMetal]

Yeah, regularly. Lately they tend to feature the girl I had a major crush on during the majority of 9th grade, after I ran into her a few months ago after not having seen her for years.

I also still wake up occasonally thinking I overslept for a job I had like 10 years ago. Sometimes I'm already sitting on the side of my bed, panicking, before realizing it's 3 am and I don't even have a job right now.

 

[nightstalker962]

I was just remembering the SAT and all that horseshit. Apparently it's going digital and it will only be two hours in length.

 

[francium87]

Sometimes its a dream about tests, mostly though I'm playing basketball with people from school.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Yes, always around September. My anxiety spikes and I am usually flailing out of bed in a panic.

 

[Tavernade]

Students

xkcd.com

I'm a teacher now, so now I'm the one responsible for doing this to others. At least I don't have that dream anymore myself...

Click to shrink...

I basically still have this exact dream, but with finals for classes I never actually went to instead. This then turns into me racing around school trying to find the class and failing. So it's two terrors I never actually experienced in my life.

 

[Rhomega]

Once. I had a dream where I was back in high school. Can't remember where I can't remember where my locker is or the combination, or what classes I have today since my final high school had Blue Days and Gold Days.