IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY IN YOUR DREAM, most likely it reflects a waking circumstance that is new and uncomfortable to you. Today’s young dreamer struggles to find her way and her dream offers some guidance.

Dear SMYD,

My family moved and I had to change schools this year. We live in a better place and the school is better, too. I have new friends and it’s all good, but I still feel insecure. I’m on the outside of a lot of inside jokes, if you know what I mean. Anyway, here’s my dream:

I dreamed I was in the cafeteria with my new friends, but at a fancy hotel. The lunch line was picked over — not much to eat. I learned there was another lunch line on the other side of the cafeteria, so I went there to get some water. But when I did, I separated myself from the group.

I was wearing stilettos for some reason and all of a sudden I was in a foreign city, maybe Rio de Janeiro. I could walk amazingly well in the stilettos, but kept being separated from the group. I kept going around the block, never getting to my friends. I always wound up on the side away from them.

The sidewalks were dangerous, as if an earthquake had broken them and they had not been repaired. I was confused as to whether I should go straight or turn at an intersection.

I turned and an older man started walking with me. He looked kind of like my grandpa. He told me to sit with Lisa. She and I were going to be on a softball team together. I had probably overstated my softball experience, but that was OK. She said she would keep score.

Signed, New Kid at School

Dear New Kid,

Your dream reflects some of your emotions at being in a new school — circumstances foreign to you — like Rio de Janeiro would be. It’s natural for you to want to fit in, while at the same time feeling separated from the group. Your dream shows you, in effect, walking on eggshells around them using the metaphor of stilettos on broken pavement.

It is hard being outside of the history they share, and they may be a little unkind when telling inside jokes around you. So maybe you even stretch the truth a little bit to impress them, as you did in your dream by overstating your prowess in softball.

Give yourself credit for walking this “dangerous ground” with skill. And consider if this is the group you really want to hang with, Dear Dreamer. No matter what you do, you always wind up away from them. Must you always work so hard with true friends?

Your grandpa’s advice is important to remember. From a picked-over lunch line with few choices, he steers you toward Lisa. Her compassionate “softball” attitude is the key. Good to know she’s the one keeping score.

Sweet Dreams to you!

Carolyn Plath, M.Ed., is a Benicia resident and member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Reach her at sendmeyourdreams@yahoo.com.

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