What is the craziest dream you’ve ever had?
Eliza Jane Schaeffer ’20: My family was having a picnic on the roof of a building and then this massive blimp flew over us. My parents were freaking out but I didn’t know why. They rushed my brothers and me into our SUV (conveniently parked next to us on the roof). As my dad buckled me into my car seat, the blimp zapped him and he turned into a paper doll. We took him to the doctor, but the doctor said that there was nothing he could do. So I kept my dad in a shoebox under my bed and dressed him up in cute little outfits for the rest of my life. I woke up crying and ran down to my parents’ room to make sure my dad was still alive.
Lauren Budd ’18: My craziest recurring dream is, by far, the classic one in which I’ve been registered in a math class without my knowledge, and it’s the day of the final exam and I have to take it despite knowing nothing. Or, similarly, that I am the lead in a play and have to perform despite knowing none of the lines. The concept itself is unoriginal, but the detail with which I dream it every time is always absurd and convincing.
Annette Denekas ’18: I have literally never remembered a dream. Not kidding. Maybe I’m a light sleeper, or it’s just another one of my many weird quirks.
May Mansour ’18: I once had a dream that I was abroad with my best friend’s boyfriend and found out that he was cheating on her with another girl on our FSP. I confronted him and screamed at the top of my lungs how much of a jerk I thought he was. I demanded he explain himself. “I did it for a pair of fresh Jordans,” he finally said. Suddenly all was clear. I understood. Sneaks before freaks.
Clara Guo ’17: I had a dream that I was driving in my SUV, about to pull up to the “stop” sign in my neighborhood. But then the sign morphed into a manuscript, and I read the most beautiful paragraph about trees. (I was very disappointed that I forgot it when I woke up.) But then the manuscript morphed into a giant cockroach (à la Kafka) that chased me down the street.
What is your zodiac sign? What personality trait associated with your zodiac do you most identify with?
Schaeffer: According to Astrology-zodiac-signs.com, Gemini are “sociable, communicative and ready for fun, with a tendency to suddenly get serious, thoughtful and restless.” I feel like that describes me (and probably like 85 percent of the world) pretty well.
Budd: I am a Pisces, and one of the defining traits is that we are overly weepy and emotional. This is absolutely true.
Denekas: I used to be a Sagittarius, but the signs changed, so apparently now I’m an Ophiuchus. I am “knowledge-seeking, admired, envied.” I asked my roommate to help me judge those traits. She thought for a second and said, “Well, I admire your ability to procrastinate.”
Mansour: I am a Taurus. Tauruses are known for their stubborness. I am not stubborn. I don’t care if you think I’m stubborn — you’re wrong. I am not stubborn!!!
Guo: I am a Libra, and by definition a romantic. (Do I believe in true love? Yes. Is the number one item on my bucket list, “Kiss in the rain on the High Line”? Most definitely.)
You look into the future. What do you see?
Schaeffer: I see myself with a job that I love and a very large dog.
Budd: I see all the stocks I should’ve bought.
Denekas: I see what I am doing with my life because I currently do not know anything. (SOS!)
Mansour: I see myself living on my turd best friend’s couch. (She’s an econ major with an ego the size of Texas. I am an English major who sometimes — and very problematically — romanticizes poverty. You do the math.)
Guo: I see certainty.
Have you ever had your palm/tarot cards read? What insight did you gain?
Schaeffer: According to my palm, I am going to die alone.
Denekas: I’ve never done it — I actually don’t believe in palm reading, psychics, superstitions, magic or anything along those lines.
Mansour: I have my tarot cards read about twice a week, every single summer down the Jersey Shore. Each time I am given a bag of Himalayan salts, which, upon bathing in them, will allegedly attract the love of my life. I am still single, and still bathing.
Close your eyes. Go to your happy place. Where are you?
Schaeffer: Laying on the ground at Billings Farm in Woodstock, Vermont, leaning my head against a fence and petting a lamb.
Budd: Trader Joe’s.
Denekas: The lake house my family used to stay at every summer on Lake Michigan!
Mansour: The golf course alone at night, laying under cover of a starred sky.
Guo: Surrounded by bookshelves.
