I have a reoccuring fear… a dream that even happens occasionally…
of classes.. and of being too far behind to ever catch up.
i can only remember one class that this ever happened in… a class in college that did almost everything in group projects, and only had about 4 projects that made up the entire grade. (i always hated school group projects, but thats another rant)
i was sick for part of one of the major projects… and even though my group members had my contact info, none of them ever contacted me. we each had already worked out what parts would be done by whom, so i didn’t think much about it.
when i returned to class, having missed about 3 classes of a twice a week class, the teacher pulled me aside and told me that my group didn’t want me included in their work because they had already reassigned what needed done (project wasn’t due for another 2 weeks) and that she had assumed i must have dropped the class.. so since i would be failing that project i couldnt pass anyway.
i had dropped a few other classes in college… but none that i can remember were from being behind in work.
and yet… i always had this fear… especially after missing a class or two…. that i would be told i was too far behind and kicked out. even when i logically knew it had no chance of happening, such as a large lecture class.
sometimes in my dreams i’m so far behind that i can’t even remember who the teacher is or where the class meets or what day even.
frequently, its a math class… which makes even less sense, because after an incident with a semester of algebra 2 in 7th grade where i didn’t really try, i was always in math classes that were too easy for me honestly… even in college. math was one of those classes that i usually got each concept fairly quickly, skipped most of the rest of the repetitive homework anytime that i could do so without major penalty, and still coasted by with one of the top scores in the class on tests, giving me a b range usually with the low homework scores mixed in.
i graduated from college years ago. i’ve taken no classes since (though there are some i would kind of like to just for my own personal interest… but i’ve yet to justify the time or expense to do so).
but still… occasionally… it comes.
and its clear enough to guess what the symbolism is… either a fear of being behind in life in general, or a fear of being blindly overconfident being my downfall.
but i’m never really sure how to deal with it.