This morning I awoke from a very strange dream. Some of its symbolism is kind of obvious, whereas the rest of it boggles me.

I'm in grad school (or was) to become a licensed teacher with a masters degree. Well, I recently was unjustly failed for the student teaching component. I haven't disputed the "F" grade yet but plan to send an appeal via email this next week. I'm in my early 40s and like most Americans, tie my identity to my job. If I can't get the "F" removed from my transcript, I am scared that will make it impossible for me to use my Masters in Education.

Anyway, here's the most recent dream I had. Maybe it's symbolism will be more obvious knowing what my current academic situation is. But there's other details about the dream that I just can't figure out how to interpret.

Any help is appreciated.

The Dream:

I am at a school with middle school children and a few adults - all of whom are strangers to me. I don't know what my role there is either. I ask them, "why am I here?" and no one answers. It takes place in the late morning. And it's summer time outside.

The playground area of the school is a large acre of green grass, boxed in by 4 large buildings. I'm in a classroom with students, but still don't know what I'm doing there -- am I teaching them or am I just visiting? Then there is a lot of commotion.

So I run outside to see what's going on. Well, one of the buildings is crumbling (all the buildings are made of brick and mortar) and children and teachers are screaming. I'm standing at the top of cement steps with some students who are watching one of the 4 buildings crumble.

Then we notice some long-legged, green-glowing spiders crawling near us on the wall of the building we're standing outside of. We all scream as one of the spider's flings itself via its web, towards us, only brushing the edge of my hair but not actually landing on my head. We run toward the building that has collapsed.

We get inside and notice that it's filled with water. The water looks murky so we turn around to go back to the other building, but that one has crumbled too. One of the students suggests that we run across the green acre of grass to the other nearby building.

We get ready to do that, but the grass suddenly is filled with these green-glowing spiders and so I tell the students that our only escape is to swim down through the murky water to the underground tunnel system that connects all 4 of the buildings. We all jump into the murky water, holding each other's hands with me guiding them.

As we're swimming downward, I look back and notice one of the students let go and floated back up to the surface. Then the other students let go of my hands and only a couple of the students continue to follow me, but at a distance. We all make it to the underground tunnel. I check to see if they are alright and they are.

So we walk through the tunnel, which is dimly lit, until we reach the other building that we think is safe. When we get to the other building, some of the teachers there yell at me for making the decision to take the students into the water as opposed to through the green grass full of strange green-glowing spiders.

I try to defend my decision with a logical explanation to no avail. The teachers told me that the students could survive the spiders' bites since it was the quickest way across to the safe building. This upsets me, so I decide to leave the school. As I get into my car and drive away, the other two buildings crumble and the green-glowing spiders have taken over the last building.

I forgot to add. As I'm driving away, I feel irritated that the teachers question my ability (and credibility) to lead the students who were with me to safety. Then I think about the students and worry about them.