Dreams.

The pros.

The way I see it, dreams are blessings.

Dreams are the subconscious's way of showing you the alternate reality. The parallel universe, if you will. They show you how things could've been. The what if's. Who doesn't love that, right?

Let's say you're really nervous about a test. It's the night before. You've switched off the light and are now crawling into bed. What if you fail that test? What if it goes bad? What if everything goes wrong? Slowly, you fall into an anxious sleep, void of any normal R.E.M. cycles. Suddenly, you're dreaming.

It's the day of the big test. The moment has arrived. This is what you've been waiting for. You look down at the paper and the next thing you know, you aced it! What do you know? Confetti is falling, people are cheering, suddenly you're being lifted onto people's shoulders and being paraded around the school. You're on top of the world, to say nothing of the shoulders under you.

Suddenly, the town mayor approaches you. He's handing you a key, saying things like "Well done! You have earned yourself the key to the town of -insert your town name here-, and as mayor of -insert your town name here-, I'd like to officially declare this day -insert your name here- Day! Congratulations!"

You're stunned! You're grinning from ear to ear! Quite literally too, seeing as this is dream world and all physical logic has disappeared. It's the best day of your life! The crowd is chanting your name! Somewhat obnoxiously... Very obnoxiously, actually... In fact, their not even saying your name. What is that their saying? Beep. Beep. Beep.

You awaken to the sound of your obnoxious alarm. After hitting the snooze button with the amount of force that one would use to hit their arch nemesis, you roll over to your back. What was the dream you had? Cheering? Mayors?

Oh, yeah!

Suddenly, it hits you. You aced the test! Or... You dream aced the dream test. It was a dream miracle! Certainly you could do anything now!

You hop out of bed feeling elated. As you get ready to face todays challenges, you feel unstoppable. Your dream gave you the courage to do anything! No test will stop you now!

And all because of a dream!

The cons.

The way I see it, dreams are curses.

Dreams are the subconscious's way of showing you the alternate reality. The parallel universe, if you will. They show you how things could've been. The what if's. Who doesn't love that, right?

Wrong.

Let's pretend in dream world, you didn't ace that test.What would happen then?

You look down at the big, fat F on your paper in dismay. All those late night study crams, all those declined outings so you could stay home and study, all that stress acne! For what? A failure!

Taking your failure of a test, you exit the classroom as your fellow students point and snicker behind you. You exit the room as someone walks by and says "Way to go, loser!" Head hanging, heels dragging, you exit the school.

You make your way through a celebrating crowd, feeling out of place. Suddenly, a person is being lifted into the air by his peers as he shouts "I aced it!" You wince, feeling even more distraught. You just want to crawl back into bed.

Bed. Home. Mom and dad! How are you going to tell them you failed? Well, they'll be understanding right? Their your parents. They have to be. Right?

You enter the front door, instantly tripping on a pile of luggage. Wonder what that's doing there. You enter the living room to find your parents sitting solemnly on the couch with those looks on their faces. You know the ones I'm talking about.

You take a deep breath, ready to tell them the news when your dad beats you to it.

"I know about the F," he says with a strict tone in his voice.

You sigh, sinking down into the love seat across from them. It doesn't even occur to you that you should be puzzling over how he could possible already know. He knows, that's all that matters.

You're about to apologize, about to plead for forgiveness, about to beg for their love back when your mother silently points to the pile of luggage. Your gaze follows her finger. Suddenly you realize that the luggage contains your stuff! Everything you own has been packed for you! How you know that is a mystery to me, but hey, it's your dream, so you should know what's going on, right?

You turn back to your parents, this time on your knees, hands clasped, as you plead with them not to kick you out. You tell them it's just a mistake. That the teacher hates you. That you really knew all that stuff. That maybe you could take it again. Maybe do extra credit to get your grade up. Anything! But still, they won't budge.

The next thing you know, you're out on the curb in front of your house surrounded by everything you own in the pouring rain. This is it. This is the end.

Lightening crashes. You awaken.

You bolt upright in bed, looking around the room, noticing you woke up before your alarm. You wipe the sweat from your brow as you try to get your bearings. Just a dream. It was just a dream. You sigh, flopping back down on your pillow, wide awake.

The test is today. You're not ready. You're going to fail. Shaking, you get out of bed and begin to get ready for your day.

Everything seems to be going wrong. You run out of hot water in the shower. You're out of toothpaste and have to use your kid sister's "Dora the Explorer" cherry toothpaste which tastes disgusting and is covered with sparkles. Almost every article of clothing you own is dirty. You burnt your tongue on your coffee. You also burnt your toast,  but it doesn't matter because you're too nervous to eat it.

You know you're going to fail the test. You just know it. You beat yourself up for going to bed every night at 2am instead of 4am. You wasted precious time sleeping when you could've been studying. And now, it's all going to go up into flames. You've never been so miserable in your entire life.

And all because of a dream!