I had a Dream

Jan 28^th 4:30 am

I just had an extremely vivid dream that I remember very well. It was unusual in the sense that it was completely cohesive and made sense, insofar as there were few of the anomalies that are normally present during dreams. In it I was the complete hero, and when I woke up, even though I would have been scared in the dream, it put me in a good mood.

The dream itself was about a shooter who took my classroom hostage. The classroom was nondescript as well as the teacher and students. I felt like I knew several of the students by name, but I don’t remember any of the specifics. The dream started with most of the class there, the teacher was about four feet from the gunman who was in the front of the room. Come to think of it, the room itself was oddly shaped like that of the sanctuary in the Episcopal Church back home. While it wasn’t decorated in the same way, its floor plan was a miniature.

As soon as the gunman had shown up, several of the students, from long practice at hiding it from professors, pulled out their cell phones and texted 911. I remember reading a little ever a week ago that 911 was going to add those capabilities so it was neat to see that show up in my dream. I was relatively un-scared; I was more excited than anything else. Although I know I wouldn’t feel this way in real life, I felt like Andrew Bolkonski from war and peace. He obsessed about showing his bravery in battle in order to receive a promotion. I felt that if I somehow ‘took care’ of this gunman I would receive great recognition. (very egotistical of me I know.)

I formulated a plan, I somehow got the gunman to agree to let all of the students to sit close together. I think I tricked him into thinking that if we were closer together he could keep a better eye on us. I sat as close to him as possible without arising suspicion. The gun that he had was not a handgun, but a large rifle or something like it. I knew it would be a struggle to get it from him.

After several minutes I suddenly fixed my attention on the door, as if to say, ‘I hear something coming.’ The gunman, fooled by my trick, pointed the gun at the door. The instant he did, I bounded across the three or four feet, and grabbed the muzzle of the gun. He swung it back to my direction and it momentarily pointed straight at me. I had the thoughts, ‘this is it, I am going to get shot.’ However, miraculously, he didn’t pull the trigger. Another half second later, it was no longer pointed at me and we were struggling in earnest. I had been expecting help from my classmates and professor. In a real life case I am sure this would have happened, but I had been reading about the bystander effect recently so I attributed their non-help to that. Trying to break the effect I called by name the professor and one of the students that was closest to me. Neither of them came to my aid, but watched stupidly as I struggled for the gun.

I kept the gun from pointing in my direction as well as from pointing directly at the other students. I employed techniques that I had learned while wrestling sticks out of my younger brother’s possession. Who knew it would come in handy? All of a sudden the gun man released his grip on the gun, and I took a couple steps back.

A short aside here, I have taken TaeKwonDo for seven or so years, and self defense is one of the major components of the art. This is what gave me the confidence to attack the gunman. We did train on how to defend against a hand gun, but not a large rifle. While wrestling for the gun, I should have struck him, but in my keen desire to be master of the weapon I had forgotten.

After gaining possession of the gun, my TKD training kicked in. I leveled the gun at the man and screamed/shouted for him to get on the ground. Instead he got up from where he had fallen, and started to advance. Backing up, I again ordered him to get on the ground.  He still advance, and, remember a similar scenario from training, and having already made up my mind on what to do in this situation, I moved the gun towards his foot/leg region and fired! Nothing happened. The gunman smiled as he continued to advance, I now knew why he hadn’t shot me when I first attacked him; the gun’s safety was still on! I fumbled with the catch, flipped it over and fired again. Still nothing, there weren’t even bullets in the gun. This was getting ridiculous, I discarded the gun and faced my opponent. As he advanced he informed me that he was well trained in the martial arts and I lied back to him that I had never fought anyone.

My dream ended in an epic fight like one from a Jackie Chan movie. After about a ten second fight, in which the entire classroom was still audience, I placed a quick succession of techniques and he fell to the ground in agony. I was a hero and woke up. As I said before, even though in real life this scenario would have scared me tremendously, it left me with a curious feeling of satisfaction. It boosted my self-efficacy. Gunman, you had better never come to any classroom that I am in.