Dreams

Today, I have 2 types of dreams I would like to talk about.

Firstly, I would like to talk about dreams in the form of ambitions and life goals. I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty this afternoon with my friends. Frankly speaking, I did not have high expectations of the movie before watching it. To me, a movie about delusions which would probably never come true did not seem at all appealing to me; furthermore, Ben Stiller is not exactly a perfect eye candy either.

However, the film managed to pleasantly surprise me. It was definitely not an Oscar winner or anything, but it was many things as well. It was actually rather funny (considering that Ben Stiller's funny is not usually my kind of funny), exciting, touching, and in many ways, inspiring. The movie definitely got me and my friends thinking about our own lives and dreams. Were we another Walter Mitty, simply living our lives without trying new, dangerous and courageous acts? Personally, I have felt that way many times in the past few years. I feel that I have not found my purpose in life. I do not feel the drive or motivation for something bigger, better. All I do is probably, day-dream. As I watch Walter Mitty go on a journey of self-discovery and in many ways, self-rediscovery, I wonder if I will ever be given an opportunity like him to do so? And if I never do, will I be brave enough to venture out of my comfort zone and unearth the opportunities lying in wait? The future is a terrible void which I am definitely very much afraid of - both of entering in, and of not entering in.

While me and my friends were on the topic of day-dreams, we moved on to the other form of dreams: dreams when we sleep. The conversation made me remember a dream I had rather recently which I thought had some form of significant meaning.

My dream
    I was going to take my A-levels Maths examination. I entered the exam venue. I was carrying with me a cage containing my brother's hamster (my brother recently bought a hamster, for real. I can guessing this is why the hamster appeared in my dreams). For some strange reason or another, the centre actually had a corner for students to place their cages of pets while we took the exam. After placing the hamster there, I proceeded to check my seat number which was written on the whiteboard. Here is probably where the tension started.
    I tried to decipher the handwriting; I took a guess at which number it was supposed to be. However, I had a hard time trying to remember my seat number despite four attempts to commit it to memory. I was feeling mildly nervous by this time before the exam. As I went to place my bag down, I bumped into someone. I unconsciously uttered "F***!" (I DO NOT usually say this in real life unless I am extremely emotional) The person who bumped into me did not apologise at all, which made me annoyed at his lack of manners. At this point in time, a strict male teacher went up to me regarding my use of language. I explained to him that I accidentally said the word. Furthermore, I pointed out that the person who bumped into me did not apologise. The teacher then spoke to the boy who bumped into me, and managed to get an apology out of him. After that, the teacher let the boy go, but continued to lecture me.
    I tried to get him to know that I understood that I was wrong in saying the f word; however, I also wanted to let him know that I did not do so intentionally. The teacher either did not get the message, or was simply denying it. Either way, he kept pushing the subject further and trying the push the blame on me. I was feeling very frustrated because I felt he was making this unnecessarily serious. Compounded with the stress before an exam, I blurted out "What the hell." And apparently, this teacher was a Christian (no offence intended for what's to follow). Upon hearing this, the teacher got angrier. To the devout Christian that he was, the mentioning of hell as if it were something light make him furious. I immediately knew that I was wrong, but yet I could not hide the indignation that I felt in that dream. I started rebutting against him. To which, he started preaching about God and how my behaviour was 'unholy'. In that dream, I felt very upset. I felt it unfair that he was judging me based on his religious beliefs (this is probably because I am a free thinker). I got so emotional that I actually started crying.
    I remember covering my face with my hands and asking, "Why are you doing this to me?"
    At that moment, my dream ended because I knew I was dreaming the moment my hands touched my face. When I woke up, I was crying. For real.
~

I am not trying to imply anything about Christianity in this dream. It probably just so happened that the teacher was a Christian. Anyway, it has been a while that I actually cry in real-life in response to a dream. It happens sometimes, but it's been a while.

Either way, the underlying message about this dream is probably how one should not impose one's beliefs upon others. With regards to religion, it probably felt very oppressive to me as a free thinker to have to receive to a scolding based on religious presumptions which I might not agree with. It definitely felt unfair and wrong to the me in the dream. I felt wronged and misunderstood, so much so that I would actually cry.
Just a food for thought for everyone.


Dreams are important, whether real or imagined. 
They give birth to confidence of ourselves.

An Idea

Here's an idea I had while studying. I find typing out content from printed material annoyingly slow and painful. So here's an idea to design a device that allows the user to transfer text from printed material to an online format. Important sentences are often highlighted; so, when one spots something important, the user will use the device to highlight it. As the device highlights the words, the device will scan the alphabets and words and type it out automatically on the computer. This would be especially useful to students (AKA ME), more so when we make use of library books, where we cannot make highlights or marks on them.

So, someone good enough in the engineering department please help me construct this device so that I can use it hahaha,