
Podcast: Dreamy Audio
Episode: 68
Title: College Field Trip
Host: Lewis Moten

Release Date: Circa November 14, 2005 – May 5, 2006
Restored Date: January 20, 2026
Duration: 11:47
Channels: 1 (mono)
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz
Encoding: MP3, VBR (~130 kbps)
File Size: 3.0 MB
Summary

The dream opens on the first day of college, defined by constant lateness, maze-like hallways, and classrooms that turn into gyms or outdoors without warning. Required books are expensive and unattainable, dorm-like sleeping spaces feel temporary and unsafe, and a shared room becomes untenable when a stranger releases a venomous pet snake for the night. Signing out feels public and permanent, as doodles and a prominently written last name mark the exit.
The dream shifts into a crowded field trip meant to pair participants one-on-one with firefighters. Everyone finds a partner except the narrator, who runs, waves a shirt, jokes like a flapping chicken, and even climbs rafters in a food-court corridor to be noticed. Laughter replaces help. Though briefly pulled back into the group for a headcount, exhaustion wins. When the crowd rushes toward yet another obligation, the narrator stops, sits, and finally lets them go.

Analysis
This dream layers academic anxiety with social invisibility. College represents unstructured expectation, while the field trip dramatizes the fear of not being chosen despite effort and humor. The final refusal to keep running suggests burnout—and a quiet reclaiming of agency through rest instead of pursuit.
Related Dreams
This episode closely echoes #48 and #49, in which college settings blur time, rules, and belonging, and #68’s partner search mirrors #67, in which public events become isolating once trusted figures vanish. All center on effort without acknowledgment.
Similar Dreams in Others
Stephen King has described recurring dreams of missing classes and wandering schools long after adulthood. Neil Gaiman has spoken of dreams where he’s expected somewhere but never told where. David Lynch has referenced dreams of being lost in institutional corridors, where meaning dissolves into endurance.
Transcript (auto-generated)
Last night’s train was about a field trip. Well, before that it was college. It was the first day of college. And I had been getting to different classes usually late each time because I didn’t know where they were. And I’d be running around trying to find numbers and going down hallways that weren’t familiar. And I get to these rooms and they tell me that I have to go and get some books first before I could attend the class.
And I would say not only did I need books by head to go to a different room to see someone to talk about something. I don’t know what it was, but… I forgot the numbers. I went to the end of one hall. I thought I found one of the rooms I was supposed to go into. I got through the door and suddenly I’m outside. So I turn around and come back inside. And I’m in the gym. So I walk past the gym and back into the hallways.
And I thought I found one of the rooms I was supposed to go into. And it’s a bookstore. The bookstore is expensive. I don’t have the cash to buy all these books. I won’t have the cash for almost two weeks.
Because, yeah, it’s not paid any. I went back to my locker to put some of these books away. And across from the wall of lockers is some semi-divided rooms where people sleep for the night. There were two beds in the one room I was assigned to. There was a girl in one bed. My brother and I were left with the other bed. He just slept on the floor. And this woman got out her pet snake and decided to let loose for the night while we slept.
I wouldn’t have anything else. I told her to get her snake back. And I was leaving the place with my brother. She was a bit surprised that I was looking to stay there. And one of the questions I asked her was if it was a poisonous snake.
She said, of course. So, that was a good thing. So at the front desk I signed out. And my brother decided to draw little doodles on the sign out sheet of little aliens and stuff. And they chose our last name pretty big at the top so that everybody else can see that we were there.
In the next part of the dream, I was on a field trip with many, many people. So, it’s some kind of career day to meet with firefighters. They were all standing on one side with black pants and red shirts standing up street. They had black pants and black shirts. We had black pants and red shirts and we were supposed to go and find one of these firefighters so that we will all be partnered one by one.
So we ran out. I thought I found one person but then somebody else decided they were with that person. So I would be running through the crowd just trying to find a firefighter without a partner.
I come so close and then I hear other people were being led to firefighters because they were almost down to everybody having one on one. I was trying to say that I didn’t have someone but nobody paid any attention to me. I took off my shirt and I was waving around and I was like, I need a partner, I need a partner. But by that time some people were laughing because they were like, you don’t really need a partner or everybody’s got one. And the whole group started to move towards their tour.
I keep just waving this shirt around, keep yelling and yelling. We started to go into a place that had a ramp going down and there was a food court above us that you could see. There was a lot of us and some thought we were going to go and eat chicken strips or something. And I would jump up and move my arms like chicken wings. People would laugh.
The vocals would go again. There were I think rafters over top of the ramp that were level with the food court above us that I would try and land on and then I would jump off of them. Somehow of this crowd I lost the crowd. I walked past the Burger King area, past the McDonald’s area and then outside I started walking and walking. I couldn’t see anybody. There were a few people that were there that I recognized from our group and one saw the crowd and I grabbed his string off of his hoodie.
He looked in his jacket. So as they all ran towards the group I could be pulled along and catch up because I was just tired. The group people were taking a road call. I don’t remember if I had to stand really still when they did a road call.
This is why the rules are not to lose anybody. They spot me and they counted me in so they had everybody. Then there was some kind of pamphlet that they gave me about a sale.
It was a red paper with white letters. They all ran towards the sale. I just fell over and I was like, I can’t keep running and doing this. I just wanted to get some rest. Then I got off and I started walking towards the area. Of course I lost track of where they went. I just do not have the energy to go chase them.
