Dream a Little Dream for Me

During my freshman year, my RA dared me to walk up to a good friend of hers who I had never met and ask him to go to Preference with me. Because I was young and immature and because I knew that he'd find out immediately it was a joke, I did it. It was awkward for him for a moment while he explained that he already had a date, and then he saw my RA laughing at him and we all had a good laugh. I never talked to him again.

About a month later, I had a dream about him. It was one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had. He asked me to prom (we didn't have prom where I grew up in Canada, so this was my first prom). We went to prom together and it was, hands down, the best night of my life. Everything was magical. At the end of the night, we went back to his house, which was a mansion. We were up in his room, lying on his bed (nothing funny, I promise---just lying there and talking) and he asked me if I knew why he had invited me to prom.

"No, I don't," I said.

"I asked you to prom"---here he hesitated---"because I actually hate you."

I was shocked but he continued. "I just thought that maybe if I gave you a chance and went to prom with you, maybe if I got to know you better, I wouldn't hate you anymore. But I still do. I still hate you very much!"

I can remember running out of his room crying, running down the spiral marble staircase of his mansion, my beautiful dress fluttering. I can remember hearing his mother calling out from somewhere in the house, asking if everything was okay...

... and I remember waking up. And laughing. Because that was a ridiculous dream.

But as I said, it was vivid and realistic. So realistic in fact, that any time I saw that guy for the rest of the time he was at BYU, I'd think, "He hates me! He hates me!" It would make me uncomfortable to see him because the memory of our prom night seemed so real.

But the fact remained that he and I didn't know each other beyond our 30-second interaction during my freshman year.

It is normal that we have dreams about random people---people we've never met, people we knew in preschool, people we know only by name or reputation. It is normal that we have truly bizarre and sometimes uncomfortable dreams about these people. I have kissed at least two teachers in my dreams. I have walked in on a professor having sex with his wife in the living room in my dreams. I have kissed (female) roommates in my dreams. I have fought with The Boy in my dreams. The fact is, we have random dreams about random people.

Do we remember that random people have random dreams about us?

It's funny to think about it. But maybe my neighborhood grocer is avoiding eye contact because in his dream last night I peed on his produce.