4. December

I love ballet. Although I was never the greatest ballerina in my class I enjoyed the sport and I enjoyed the feeling, so that almost every good bye card before I went to the US featured a ballerina. I was given two ballerina necklaces and a ballerina jewelry stand. It is a beautiful and powerful dance and even before I started dancing myself I wanted to see a ballet. Once I started dancing that wish became stronger. It was my dream to see a great professional ballet but since that did not seem so probable in near future and especially not in Aachen I decided the man I love will sometime surprise me with tickets to a beautiful ballet.
Seeing the opera house gave me the idea to see  ballet in Australia. Sadly the Australian ballet was never in the city where I was. When I was in Sydney it was in Melbourne, when I was in Perth it was in Adelaide, when I was in Adelaide it was in Perth and now that I am in Melbourne it is in Sydney. As I was checking things to do in Melbourne, however, I found out that the Australian Ballet School! is located here and that they are performing the Snow Queen next weekend. You cannot imagine my excitement because I have already booked tickets. It is even better as Owen is coming with me and I won't have to go by myself. It's a wish come true although I am not going with the love of my life, since that person does not exist at the moment :P
I am sooo excited!! And in the spirit of this dream I thought I would share with you my abstract word essay I had to write for English Comp while I was in the US. Enjoy.

Shirin Azarvan

3-24-11

3^rd hour        

Dreams - A playground of Ideas and Unbound Thoughts

A girl sits at a lake shore. Hundreds of stars reflect off of the calm dark water; one of them, the brightest one, truly fascinates the child, for she can't find its complement in the sky. As she is thinking of the light's cause, it starts moving towards her. She holds her breath, excited to unravel the mystery, when she feels the Earth quaking. With a rapid speed, the water is drawn away, revealing more and more of the lake's ground, until a tear in the mud becomes visible. Horrorstruck, the girl watches the tear expand. The floor beneath her trembles violently; however, she does not move as the cleft rips the Earth open into a gaping dark mouth. Only as a dangerous growl escapes the depth, she turns to run, but it is too late. The crack reaches the girl's feet and losing her balance, she instantly slips backwards into the endless black, leaving only the echo of her desperate scream. Then she opens her eyes. It was just a dream.

Dreaming is a state of mind, which is essential and unavoidable. Given by The Oxford English Dictionary are three definitions for the word dream: A dream is a "train of thoughts, images, or fancies passing through the mind during sleep; vision of the fancy voluntarily or consciously indulged in when awake, a visionary anticipation; an object seen in a vision." The word dream first appeared in Middle English and is of Germanic origin; it is related to the Dutch droom and the German Traum, and probably also to the Old English drēam [joy, music.] It is suggested, too, that the Germanic draumo was a form of the earlier draugmo , a derivative of delude, in German trügen, whence old Nordic draugr means ghost, apparition, the radical sense of being, and also 'deceptive appearance, illusion".

The first definition above describes dreaming when one is asleep. Humans spend on average six years of their life dreaming and have around ten dreams per night. That is because humans only dream in certain stages of their sleep. The dreams in the last stage, immediately before awakening, are the most intensive ones and more likely to be remembered. Dreaming is essential to process thoughts, experiences, fears, or wishes; therefore, we sometimes have good or bad dreams, also called nightmares. If someone watches a scary movie, the brain handles the fright in dreams, where there are no limits. While dreaming, people have no control over their thoughts. There is no need to be realistic or to make sense; instead, the brain can romp on a playground of thoughts and ideas, without affecting the real life. In his research, which focused on the fact that people dream to remain sane when awake, Dr. William Dement said, "Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives." The experience of dreaming differs from person to person; some people do not remember at all if they even had a dream, while others can retell the nightly adventures into every detail. A number of people claim they only ever dream in black and white, and others seem to live through the same dream again and again. Sometimes dreams are so alive, that the dreamer takes them as reality. When I was younger, for example, my older sister spent one year in the United States, and one night I dreamed she was back. The next morning I ran downstairs calling her name and asking my parents where she was, just to then find out she would not return for another three months. This does not only happen to children but also to adults, who might dream they did not finish their work and then later realize they already turned it in. 

Many people believe that dreams are visions telling about the future and giving signs about a persons life. To them it is really important to remember dreams, in order to have them interpreted; their dreams are guidebooks to their lives. To read and understand them psychologists are consulted, whose profession specializes on the study of the mind, including mental processes, character, and mental attitude. Especially in earlier times, when a human's life was less occupied by technology, dreams had a great influence on the people and were attributed meaningful powers. A lot of kings, or other high ranked aristocrats, requested fortune tellers to interpret their dreams and to help them make decisions by what they read in them. In religious history, many characters are reported for having visions; the illusions usually included a sign God's, directing the seer to an action. An example is Moses, who heard God talking to him through a burning bush and demanding him to travel to Egypt. Dreams and their meanings are a complex topic many have tried to understand and summarize. Being a famous Austrian neurologist and psychotherapist, who proposed the existence of an unconscious element in mind, Sigmund Freud wrote the book The Interpretation of Dreams; at present, scientists are doing research to find out if dreams even have a meaning.

" I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today”. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech expresses his vision of the nation's future; a goal which is very difficult and consuming to accomplish, a characteristic of dreams. Every person has a burning wish they hope to fulfill in their future. Those wishes we call dreams, an aspiration that one truly wants and would do anything for. They often concern a profession or a future lifestyle; still, they differ from person to person. For some, reaching their goal just requires a lot of time and work; for others, their desire is unrealistic or seems impossible to attain. Especially for those that find themselves in a desperate and sad situation, their dream is the reason they do not give up on themselves. It is like the light at the end of the tunnel, it is the view on something better, it is the reason they get up in the morning. Everybody needs dreams, since dreams are to people as paint is to an artwork; without them we live, but with them we are alive. 

Dreaming, if unconsciously or voluntarily, is vital to a person's life. It builds a shelter from everyday stress, a source of hope and strength, a relief from society's pressures. A human life is bound with rules, manners, and expectations; whereas a dream is free. It is a bird spreading its wings, floating with the streams of the wind, reaching out beyond all barriers, and exploring the opportunities. In every direction lies an adventure, and no ties hold it back. Everything is possible. There is no horizon.