I Had a Dream

Last night I had a dream. The dream was like one of those "what-if" episodes you see on TV. In my dream, I had chosen to stay in the Marine Corps, and was about two years away from retirement. I still had my kids, was still married to my ex-wife, still lived in California, and I had never met my current wife.

The dream seemed real enough, but it wasn't realistic. I still had too many of my current thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and experiences. If I had stayed in the Corps, I believe that my life would be radically different than the dream portrayed. For example, I wouldn't be driving around in the car with the ex, because we never would have bought the car we were driving. Furthermore, I'd probably be in Iraq dodging bullets, not in Southern California enjoying a drive with the kids (not to mention the fact that even if I was still stateside, I wouldn't be living in California, because the military would definitely have transferred me by now). And there's no reason to believe that the ex and I wouldn't have divorced anyway. But at the time it seemed real.

The dream itself wasn't really that odd. It didn't stick out because it was surreal in and of itself. It was an ordinary day under that what-if scenario. The part that stuck out was what happened when I woke up. The dream I had was so realistic that as I returned to consciousness, I was completely disoriented. In the dream, I was in a car, with my ex (who was still my wife), during the daytime. But when I woke up, it was the middle of the night, I was in my bed, laying next to someone totally different (and IMHO, much better). As I continued my journey from dreamland back to reality, I was so perplexed that I had to shake my head, as if I were physically jarring my brain back into the here and now. THAT'S why I remember this dream.