Mrs. Layton's A.P. European History class at Viewmont was infamous for issuing a book report over the summer. You had to read Ivanhoe and write a paper about it, due the first day of school. For procrastinators like me, the worst part about it was having this axe hanging over you the entire summer—three long months to agonize over when to read that stupid book and do your homework at a time when you should be carefree, staying up late, hanging out with friends, etc.For whatever reason, something in my subconsciousness triggered this unpleasant memory, and I had a dream about it. The Ivanhoe assignment had a slight variation though. Instead of having to read the book and write the paper during the summer, Mrs. Layton gave the assignment during the school year, but only certain class members had to do it. Did she draw names out of a hat to decide? I don't know, my dream didn't go into specifics. In any case, I was one of the unlucky ones that got stuck with having to do it. And of course, the night before the paper was due, I realized I hadn't even started reading the book, and I was freaking out as to how I was going to get it done.
Finally, I kept reminding myself, you are not in A.P. European History anymore, you are not in A.P. European History anymore, and I woke up. But strangely enough, when I fell back to sleep, the dream continued. Only now it was the day the paper was due, and I was questioning classmates whether they had done it or not. Some people seemed certain that it was all a scare tactic, and Mrs. Layton wouldn't even bother collecting it. Others were baffled at my willingness to play with fire. How was I going to throw this thing together? Maybe I could fake it with the Cliffs Notes?
Once again I had to remind myself, you are not in A.P. European History anymore, you are not in A.P. European History anymore. Mercifully, I was soon woken up by my alarm clock, only to realize I had hit snooze twice already, and was now 20 minutes behind in getting ready for work. Of all the things to sleep in for.
3 comments:
I still have those stress dreams-- generally about a math class that I never went to as well. Not long ago I had a new version where there were all sorts of bad things happening when I was conducting relief society.. it makes for unrestful sleep..
I actually have students in my classes that don't come to class all semester and then come to me at the end wanting extra time to do things. For some people it's stress dreams; for others it's real life.
On Ivanhoe, writing that summer paper for her class, I learned the word 'ambiguity'. I had to look it up, as it was part of the question we were supposed to answer. There were a couple people who showed up the first day of class that hadn't known about the assignment somehow.
I can't complain too much about Mrs. Layton. She did show us Monty Python and the Holy Grail after the AP test was over.
Yea my dreams usually involve math classes too that I didn't go to for the whole semester then I have to take the final.
Post a Comment