Most people have a worst nightmare where they’re falling. Or being chased. Or suddenly naked in public. Or in a natural disaster. Or covered in snakes. Or drowning.
My worst recurring nightmare is none of these - it’s not attending maths.
At least two or three times a month I dream variants of the same dream:
I become aware that it is week [6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / …] of semester and I have not attended any of my [statistics / calculus / linear algebra / engineering for mathematics / …] lectures for which I am enrolled because I have [forgotten I was enrolled / been too busy / been skipping / been playing netball].
I attend a [lecture / tutorial] in the [arts / architecture / engineering / physics / ref] building and realise as [Dr Stoyanov / Prof Owens / Dr Ma / My boss at work / Pippa from Home&Away] is talking that I [don’t understand anything / have no chance of catching up / have missed most assessments / have an assignment due tomorrow] and will fail university.
The dream is never resolved, I just wake up and it takes a moment to overcome the terror and realise that I graduated university four years ago and will never have to do another maths course again. My bro Jimmy also has similar dreams with the difference that his aren’t maths lectures. I wonder if it is a common nightmare.
I also wonder if these nightmares will ever cease, or if I will be constantly tortured forever for actually unenrolling from 3rd year statistics after skipping the first three weeks of lectures to play intra-uni lunchtime netball and finding that I could not catch up.

I have them too, but not about maths.
Comment by Richo — August 8, 2006 @ 2:19 am