Week Two - Task #08. - “Across My Memory”

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Arriving at the high windows of the enormous hall inside the obsidian palace, your heart leaps into your throat. Not because of how insecure you’re starting to feel at addressing these large, dancing polar bears, but because a racket of squeaking chirps and the harsh fluttering of hundreds of wings pierces your ears loudly from out of nowhere.

“Ghastputin’s albino bats,” Mitri whirls to face them, flinging his jacket up over your heads a split second before you’re attacked by countless, small, pale-white bats. “He’s here. It’s happening now.”

His jacket proves to be enchanted, magically expanding to encase you both. But not before you’ve gotten an up close and personal look at the sharp, bloody looking fangs lining the bats pink mouths.

Thankfully, they don't seem to be able to break through the barrier, which is a subtle sort of solace in spite of how completely nightmarish this adventure has turned out to be.

You’re pleading with all your might for the bats to leave you alone so you can get inside the palace safely and warn the bears of Ghastputun’s presence, until you’re struck on the side of the head by one of the evil sorcerer’s albino minions, with such force that your vision blurs.

At least I’m not getting bitten, you think, underestimating the damage taken. Then your entire body droop as you lose consciousness.

In the darkness of your mind, images begin to take form. The shape of a train appears, steaming at full speed along its track at dusk.

As if in a dream, you watch yourself on the train, only much, much younger.

But this isn’t a dream, you reckon. It feels more like a memory.

You're not sure which is true, but the child in front of you looks exactly as you did when you were little, and you’re sad to see they look frightened.

You hardly have a chance to wonder what’s caused such dismay before they begin to run through the train, away from something, until they reach the very tail end, clutching at the railing outside.

The vision of you does an about face, looking toward an unseen pursuer before getting knocked backward off the back of the speeding train, their head slamming forcefully on the ground.

Task:
Share an HOL appropriate Memory in 100 words or more about a time you felt nervous, afraid, or uneasy.

Alternatively you may contribute a Dream Analysis piece describing a dream you’ve had in 125 words or more, relaying what took place and what it might have represented for you symbolically.

This task is worth 15 beans/sapphires, with an additional 15 bonus beans/sapphires for completing all Week Two tasks by end of activity. Deadline is 11:59pm (HOL time) on Thursday December 21st.

[Evie Figg]

My mother and I both have similar re-occurring dreams. They aren't the exact same dream every time, however it is the location in which we dream about that is re-occurring for both of us.

We lived on an acreage from when I was born, until I was 10. So, it's been 20 years since we have moved away from there. Yet, my mother and I both frequently dream about the house and the property, even after all these years. We have both since moved into other houses, and cities, yet somehow that period of time in our lives still makes a presence in our dreams.

I can't think of any particular dream per say, as I have had many of them and dreams are mostly nonsensical so if I were to describe the plot of the dream, it would sound crazy. So I will just say that the house itself, and wandering around in the forest out back, is what I mostly dream about. My mother would also dream about the house and the forest property surrounding it.

I believe we still dream about our old house because it held significant importance for both of our lives. For her, it was where she had first started raising children, and for me, it was my first house I had ever lived in, the first house I created memories, so, it isn't too much of a stretch that I'd frequently dream about it. I just hope I never stop!

[Artemisia Thorne]

The best memory I have of being afraid was when I was about 5/6. My mum had just remarried, they chose to do a familymoon, so them, my stepdad’s parents, and I were all staying in cabins in a forest near a lake. My mum and I had only just moved to the country in time for the wedding, so I didn’t really know much about the animals yet. I also had a rather vivid imagination. So, when I was woken one night by clanging on the roof of the cabin and I was told it was probably just a couple of possums... well, I had no idea what possums looked like, I only had the incredibly loud and scary banging I had heard to piece together an image in my mind… and my mind settled on dog-like orangutans with sharp teeth and claws. I have since seen many possums, they sometimes get pretty close, and I no longer have such silly ideas about them. The type of possum that this country has are called the common brushtail possum, and they are chonky snugglebugs. They’re adorable, absolutely not blood-thirsty mutant orangutans.

[River Fenwick]

One memory that sticks out to me is the first memory I have of being afraid when I was about four years old. Like many children, I was scared of the dark, so I slept with some form of light on. The light created shadows, and my rooms must have been rearranged differently from the night prior as a new shadow appeared. My door housed the shadow of what I thought was a snake that night. I believed I had to keep an eye on the shadow and stayed up what I believed to have been all night but probably wasn't, scared of the "snake" at the door. Funnily enough, all these years later, I was sorted into Slytherin, now embracing the snake within.

[Dibyarup James Potter]

It was the first job interview of my life. I was applying for the role of a Software Engineering intern at a well-known company that I cannot name due to several reasons. Even though I did not get selected for that internship, the experience that I gained from the entire three-rounds of interviews, consisting of two technical interviews and one HR interview was worth more than the job role itself, because it prepared me for the interviews of two future internships, both of which I got selected for. The second one was a role in that same company where I gave my first interview.

Now coming to my first interview. The process comprised three rounds, as stated earlier. During the first technical round, I was the most nervous. The interviewer greeted me and she had a very welcoming behaviour. She made me feel comfortable first by asking some basic questions. Then she gave me two problem statements, asking me to come up with algorithms for them and explain it to her before coding them. The round went very well, and I was able to come up with an optimal solution for one and a good solution for the other problem statement. In the second technical round I managed to solve one problem optimally but partially solved the second. In the HR round, I performed decently, but the most difficult part was controlling my nervousness, because seeing so many interview panel members made me feel somewhat intimidated. However, the experience definitely helped me work on myself to overcome that nervousness in my future interviews.

[Adeline Morior]

I once had a dream of a broken building with a tower on top. I looked around and found everyone I know busy with things. Some having a picnic on the grass, others a heated debate. I decided to start climbing this broken building. Choosing my steps carefully. Some people started climbing with me but would eventually stop to rest on one of the floors. Others were found already at some floors busy with daily tasks, but not climbing further. I kept climbing, ever so often looking back to see people fall behind, choosing to stop or not even trying. I eventually reached the top of the tower and noticed no one had reached it with me. I sat down and started to meditate. Deciding it would be best as I wait for the others.

Time, days, even weeks pass as I sit and meditate at the top of the tower, yet no one else has reached it. I look around and find that the tower has grown and there are people climbing above me, but no one I know or recognize. Stranger I have yet to meet. So I get up and start climbing again. Passing people as they stopped until I reached the top alone again.

I sat long and hard thinking about this dream afterwards. Knowing the answer but not willing to admit it to myself. I was growing spiritually faster than those I knew. Sometimes they would even stop and keep busy with other things while I would stop to meditate, to reflect on my mistakes and then move forward again. I knew in my heart this was true due to “out growing” those around me. I don’t like feeling stagnant and only stop to reflect and then move ahead. My dream reflected this I think.

[Aquaria Sandalwood]

A time when I felt afraid and nervous was when I was just starting 7th grade, on the very first day of school. My family had just moved across the country and it would be my first day of school in a new state. I didn’t know anyone there, and it was a much larger school than I was used to. In addition to that, the school that I went to for 6th grade had 6th grade as part of the elementary school, but in my new school 6th grade was part of middle school! So I had never been to middle school, my new school was huge and had three floors, and I didn’t know anyone! I ended up going to the wrong homeroom and getting lost multiple times, and I sure did not want to go back the next day!

[Viviana Kingston]

I think one of the craziest dreams I had - which was the one I most reflected on - was about this tsunami. I was near the coastline and in a building right near the ocean and a tsunami hit. There were moments where I could see myself struggling outside, trying to grab onto things so the current wouldn’t push me away, standing on broken buildings as water passed by. And then there was the main part of my dream, about this building that kept getting hit by the tsunami and it was the most stable thing around and through out most of the dream, I was in this building. Outside was utter destruction but inside nothing was amiss. There was one time during this dream where someone went outside because they hadn’t realised a tsunami was occur and they got washed away.

I was so puzzled by this dream, I ended up writing an entire book based on it. Even now when I think about the dream, I get so puzzled by the fact it’s been 2 years already and I have a clear memory of what happened during it (because I usually don’t remember my dreams). When I did reflect on this dream, I came to the conclusion that perhaps this was a sign of some sort. At the time, I was trying to make huge decisions that were going to affect the course of my life, and I believed that the dream was inspiring to keep hold to my faith and not worry about what happens. That if I held my faith tightly, my faith would be like the building, immune to the harsh reality and no matter the outcome, I’d be okay.

[Lex Green]

A few weeks (maybe months) ago, I had a very vivid, very complicated dream that seemed to make both no sense, and complete sense at the same time.

The dream started with me in the cockpit of an airplane, which I was apparently going to fly, as I was training to be a pilot (not something I've ever considered in my real life, but I was watching the TV series 'Manifest' at the time, so it likely came from the association with that show.) I was very worried about potentially flying a plane full of people on my own, as I (unsuprisingly) didn't know how to do it, but someone else in the cockpit assured me that it was just a simulation, not a real flight, so we started.

When we 'landed,' it was apparent that we had in fact travelled, all the way to Thailand. Before our flight back the next day, we had to stay in a hotel overnight, but the hotel was not very safe (which I think I got from seeing social media posts of people showing how to stay safe in hotels). We all got into small groups to share hotel rooms.

The next day, I was magically in Texas, and flew another plane to somewhere else. However, when we landed, we realised we had no way back to the USA. Our natural thought process was to talk to someone named Anna (who is not a real person as far as I remember), and she told us to hide on a bus to get back home. We did this, but on the way, got caught by border control. We hid at the back of the bus, and successfully made it back home.

We then discovered that as well as training as a pilot, we were all also involved with a production of The Phantom of the Opera (which I had recently seen a production of in real life). Apparently, I was playing Meg Giry...

[Scarlet Robloutain]

So there was this one time when I was feeling really nervous, because I had to go speak in front of a whole crowd of people. I just turned 12 and I had to present some invention me and a couple others made, to a bunch of grown ups. Everyone was looking at me, and I felt so scared. Maybe I would forget my lines and make a fool out of myself or I would stutter and people would laugh. But the weird thing was, once I started talking, all the nerves went away. I just looked at the back of the crowd and suddenly felt really confident, I was actually enjoying myself. Now 10 years later I realise that I was just unnecessarily worried.