Running Head: WILD EAGLE CHASE

Wild Eagle Chase

Donnie Siebarth

San Joaquin Valley College

ENG121

Benjamin Andrews

February 20, 2013

Introduction

Dreams are the mysterious and captivating gates into our subconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and emotions. For centuries, their purpose, origin, and construction have intrigued the minds of researchers, philosophers, and all other human beings. Dreams can trouble a person’s mind, driving them to the end of their wits to discover the meaning behind them. I have experienced this personally, back in my freshman year of high school. The dream I had during that homecoming week haunted me for years after it first visited my subconscious mind that fateful Monday night.

The Situation I Was In

I remember it like it was yesterday: Monday of homecoming week my freshman year. My high school, the Iowa Yellow Jackets, was scheduled to face a 2A private school opponent, the Holy Savior Menard Eagles, that Friday. As I trotted out to the practice field like every other Monday, my coach pulled me aside. Then, he told me that our starting free safety, a senior who I was second-string underneath, had broken his collarbone the day before. Instantly, my face became white, and I quickly nodded my head and gave a brisk, “Yes, sir,” as the idea of my 117-lb, 5’7” frame playing free safety against the corn-fed players from Menard began terrorizing my 14 year old mind. Indeed, I had quite a predicament on my hands.

The Dream

That night, I sunk into my bed after a hot shower and telling my father, who couldn’t have been more excited, about my situation. Granted, I didn’t achieve the much desired state of sleep until around three that next morning, haunted by my fear of the game Friday. However, even in sleep, I couldn’t escape these terrors. There, I dreamt that I was dressed in my football uniform and had just run to the sideline with the rest of my team, awaiting the result of the coin toss and eyeballing my potential assassins across the turf from me. Suddenly, a shrill screech rings in my ears, and I turn to the left to lay my eyes on the largest eagle imaginable. Then, he flew down to land right in front of my trembling figure, and with a final blink, offered one more screech as a challenge. Of course, my response was to about face and head for the hills. While I was running, I leaped into the air, and suddenly began to fly. However, shortly after takeoff, I was snatched up in one of the eagle’s talons. The eagle then screeched once more, except this time, it was the sound of an alarm clock. Finally, I woke up to my actual alarm clock going off and myself sweating profusely and breathing heavily. Needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to that day—or the rest of the week—at all.

Meaning of Chase Dreams

It’s quite obvious that my dream—or should I say nightmare—is classified as a “chase” dream. In these types of dreams, the dreamer is being pursued by a monster, animal, or some form of being that wishes to cause the dreamer harm. When someone has one of these dreams, it usually indicates that they are going through a personal experience that is causing them a great deal of stress, discomfort, or even fear (Tartakovsky, 2011). The dreamer feels pressured in this part of their life and,whether the feelings of stress are expressed or not, they transform their stress into the threatening pursuer (Wallace, 2013). Of course, this is exactly what I was suffering from.

Meaning of My Wild Eagle Chase

So, now that I have been so graciously enlightened with professional dream knowledge, it’s time to decipher my terrifying dream. The first step in solving a chase dream is to figure out what the monster is, what the setting of the dream is, and what feelings are present during the dream (Mann, 2013). Since I was being pursued by a giant eagle, the dream took place on the football field, and the fact that I felt nervous and frightened during the dream, it’s clear what my dream and all of its parts represent. Of course, the giant eagle represented the giant players for the Holy Savior Menard Eagles that I was going to have to try and tackle that Friday night. Accordingly, the football field setting stood for the actual place where I would be forced to face my fear, in my home football stadium on homecoming night. Finally, the fear and anxiety throughout the dream represented my own feelings that I experienced when my coach told me I would be the starting free safety from now on. Finally, the mystery of the giant eagle has been solved!

Conclusion

The wild eagle chase dream I experienced my freshman year of high school used to be a skeleton in my closet that threatened my sleep for years. After some research, however, I have discovered the dream’s representation. It stood for the fear I felt during homecoming week my freshmen year, when I would become a varsity starter—for the very first time—against a football team of over-grown high school students. Now, not only has the origin of the wild eagle chase been solved, but my first appearance as a starter—a game of seven tackles, an interception, and a punt return for a touchdown—will forever live on in the record books of my high school as well as in the filing cabinets of memories in my subconscious.

References

Mann, M. (2012). Seven Common Dreams and What They Mean. Divine Caroline. Retrieved on

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Tartakovsky, M. (2011).Uncovering Your Dreams: 12 Universal Themes. Psych Central.

Retrieved on February 20, 2013, from

Wallace, I. (2013). Being Chased.Ian Wallace Dreams. Retrieved on February 20, 2013, from