The Dream is Always the Same

Sigmund Freud had a lot to say about dreams, and what they indicate is going on in our subconscious.
There must be some nearly universal stuff knocking around down there because I know many people who have a variation on a single dream.

The setting is always a school.  Usually a high school although my age is often current.  It is a large place and I am having difficulty finding my locker.  Also I can't remember the combination so I guess there is no great urgency in finding it.

Of somewhat greater concern I have a test in just a few minutes, and I forgot to study for it.  I also forgot to put on enough clothing.

The dream is populated by people.  None of them seem concerned that I am clad only in a T shirt, which I am diligently trying to tug downward for reasons that would otherwise become rather evident. This dream has recurred so many times that it has become familiar, I can actually pick out minor variations in it.  Oh, and it is one of the few dreams in which I am always aware of at least a high probability that I am dreaming.

I finished my residency in Family Medicine in 1985.  That year, and episodically thereafter, I had to take a Board Exam.  They got a little harder as I got further into my career, darn it all if they did not keep inventing new stuff!

When I left clinic practice a few years back I sort of figured I would be done with taking Board Recertification Exams.  I am working as an Emergency Room doc now.  And I thought a few more years and it would be time to move on to the next challenge.

But I changed my mind.  I enjoy work and would even consider a slow down phase where I go back to part time office practice.  So with a deadline looming I decided I would take the Recertification Exam.

I made this decision in mid August.  I had until September 17th to get all my bureaucratic ducks in a line.

The hardest part was doing a series of online "modules", basically a sort of interactive test that teaches you things by showing you how much you don't know.  I had to do 7 of them.  They were supposed to take 12 hours each.

So over the course of a three week span I did them all.  While continuing to work full time.  And have a family wedding.  And get ready for my upcoming robotics class.  And go on my annual baseball road trip.

Obviously I did not have any extra time, so I found myself at my laptop in the midst of a torrid late summer heat wave.  The air conditioner was being balky so I was sitting there clad only in boxer shorts.  I found myself unprepared for an upcoming test. And if you ask me for my locker combination I still have no clue.