Dreamlike perma-academia
I keep having a recurring theme in many of my dreams where I'm back in school (university usually, or in high school sometimes), but constantly lost. For example, last night I dreamt I was attending university again (presumably going for a Master's since I already have two Bachelors'), and living on-campus as I did before. Being a dream, of course, the university was a more 'fantastic' rendition of its real-life counterpart, with much larger lecture halls, doors of various sizes, and so on. It was complete with hundreds of students, all of whom had actual faces that I've never seen in real life, yet they all felt familiar. In any case, everyone was in their respective classes, clubs, organizations, or simply in the halls and such hanging out...just like in real life. Yet, I felt lost; I didn't know what my classes were, where I was supposed to go, which professors I was supposed to meet, etc. I didn't have an 'agenda' with me, so I was truly lost, and decided to just go to random classes in an out, in a sort of 'purgatory.' In one lecture hall, there was a chair without a desk that could go all the way to the ceiling, which I thought was pretty odd and uniquely dangerous. I left that class and found myself getting read to 'join' some strange club dedicated to Vexillology and rugs, right before a Navy recruiter pulled me into a class and had me watching recruitment videos with several other people. A truck horn woke me up.
I think the dreams might have to do with how I've been feeling 'lost' in life, post-university. All of my former friends and family members are all out having fulfilling lives, building their careers, raising families, etc and I'm just...working a dead-end job (fields of study won't hire me), feeling like I'm still at Square 1. In the school of Life, I guess, I feel as though I'm still in Homeroom.