I can hear the parade music getting steadily louder, and I have got to find a spot to sit. I have no idea why I am here, or even where here is. Strange noises are whirling around me and the color seems a little… off. It’s not a particularly intriguing position to find yourself in, and yet I am drawn on by some remarkable force. I must find the right spot, and none of these places are working. Ahh! This is a life or death matter!

I am drawn to a darkened spot on the pavement. Hurrying over, I sit down hard –

- and find myself shooting down a slick tunnel. I pop out the other end and find myself among a bunch of old people sitting around a scratched, wooden table. I pick up the words “parade” and “almost finished.” Panic jolts through my body. As I scramble to leave, a particularly wrinkly old woman turns and looks at me. “Better hurry, dear. You don’t want to miss such a show as this one. It won’t happen again for another 537 years.”

Her words send an extra boost of speed into my feet and I tear out of the room. I look outside to see elephants in sparkling headdresses and boys banging carelessly on drums passing by. The parade’s ending! But… I think I see an empty spot just there… I rush over, and –

Bee-Beep. Bee-Beep. Bee-Beep.

Wait, what was that? Where is that noise coming from? No matter, getting to that spot on time to see the rest of the parade is definitely more important.

“Time to get up, Hannah.”

No! I’ve seen barely any of the parade, and now it’s almost over!

I am jerked into wakefulness. The dream’s taste still lingers on my tongue. Now, in the hazy seconds after waking up, the parade still seems of utmost importance to me.

Everything thing is dark and fuzzy for a moment, and then my life is brought into focus. My mom is standing above me. My alarm clock – oh, dreaded alarm clock – sits innocently on my nightstand, as if to say, “What? I’m just doing my job.” It is time to get up – I can no longer ignore that awful fact.

I squeeze my eyes shut one last time. For a moment, the parade appears before me. I long to return and watch it end, but I know I can’t. A day of bus rides, boring classes, and never-ending assignments looms before me.

Yes, those early morning discoveries are never happy ones.