Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Schools being bombed
In last night's dream, I was working in an elementary school in Mexico. It was a two hour drive to get to work and I still lived in the the states, so I crossed the border with my passport every day. I had been converted to an hourly employee with only a part time schedule, and it definitely wasn't enough income. I couldn't find a job anywhere so I started working at an elementary school even though that's not my background. I was nervous and a little irritated that I had to drive so far for a job that paid only $33 an hour. The school was very poor and there were kids of all ages in one classroom. There was even a high school senior who kept messing around and laughing loudly with his younger teenage friends and then suddenly saying "Bro, quit fucking with me! This is the year I'm going to graduate, for real this time. Bet."
I looked out the window and saw a huge group of children and teachers running towards the school, then I heard the bombs, and the screams. I was mortified, then I kept seeing TV screens with the news of the bombing flashing all over it. I don't know who was bombing Mexico, but I remember feeling that even thouogh I was scared and panicked, I was safe inside the school. The teachers all shouted for us to turn the lights off. After a while it seemed like they were all used to being bombed and just carrying on like everything was normal. So screwed up. I kept thinking about normalizing trauma and having a high baseline for emotional meltdown, and knowing these kids were not calm and settled but just kept forcing themselves to go through the motions. They were loud, quarrelsome and quick to tear up. It felt like emotional triage and I just kept hugging everyone and trying to soothe the kids even though inside I felt like wasps were stinging my insides and my heart was about to burst out of my chest. I felt like I'd had too much coffee.
No one gave me any directions, and I was alone in a classroom with a bunch of kids, mostly younger kids and even some tiny toddlers, and the one group of teenage boys. After a while none of the kids were scared and they kept getting louder and louder and bumping into things, so I got frustrated and turned the lights on. I kept improvising and making up things for the kids to do, like telling them to draw certain objects, show me the book they were reading, etc. It was typical anxiety-provoking teacher dream I've had many times. I wasn't prepared but I had to pretend I was in control and everything was fine as these young eyes looked to me for leadership. A Mexican teacher came in the room and reprimanded me to keep the lights off. I asked her what we were supposed to be doing but she just walked away. I couldn't wait to get home. A few kids were clinging to me, hugging me and say "Miss, Miss!" and trying to tell me about things and show me things they made. In my head I vowed never to come back, even though I knew these kids needed me. I wanted to go home so badly.
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