"This is, like, the fourth time I've taken this class."

But it was the first time this year I've had the "high school dream."

I'm sent back to high school to complete an unfinished course, usually in math or science. I pull every lock, trying to remember which locker is mine. (Note to dream self: it's usually your 10th grade locker, the one by the typing classroom.) Students look at me but none offer to help. Sometimes they're strangers, sometimes they're my high school classmates — sometimes they're my current friends. But it's always my high school.

This time I was invited to participate in a foreign language competition. French was my forté in high school, so I was sure our team would win. It was a timed translation drill. I couldn't remember any French — except, of course, merde! — and I only contributed to one answer, which turned out to be wrong.

Then, as I was climbing the stairs from the auditorium to my locker, my phone rang. It was a manager from the Times-Picayune, who wanted to interview me for a position they posted (in real life) a few weeks ago. A former coworker had recommended me.

"Are you busy?" the manager asked.
"No," I said. "I'm at school. I'm in the high school dream."
"I have a few questions, since I don't have a resume or an application from you—"
"Well, yeah — I didn't apply because I wasn't ready to relocate. But I'm listening…"

I answered his questions and was transferred to another manager.

"What makes you qualified for this position?"
"Well, I did almost the exact same thing at my most recent job before I was laid off."
"Oh, in Memphis? That was you?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"What made you decide to go back to school?"
"I'm not in school. Well I am in school, I just…"

And that's about when I woke up. I've had the standard "go back and repeat chemistry class" dream so many times: it's the only dream I ever remember. Dream Moods says it symbolizes self-doubt.

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