Before you read on please prepare yourself for a mix of Skyrim, Toastmasters, cubs/scouts, camping, school, impractical buildings, etc. and then you may understand what churned in my mind early in the morning…
It started with my family camping (Yellow Sands?) and then my dad showing me what will come if I join (not sure what though). There was an old house with dead skeevers on sticks around the entrance or just the front of the house. By the entrance it looked like spikes in the ground. They were sharp wooden-like spikes, like hedgehog quills. My dad and brother did something to them and then proceeded to show me how to walk over them barefoot – it was something that both of them had to do at one point in their lives when they joined whatever it was that I was going to be joining pretty soon.
Then there were several instructors and a group of people. I was the eldest by a long shot. We were divided into groups and I really liked my group – they were uncertain of me until they came to understand through interaction that Aspergers was nothing to be afraid of and that I was a pretty cool dude to be around. (Big Anne comes into my mind when ever I think of saying the word, dude!)
I think the point was to follow instruction and to find something valuable at the end of the obstacle course, or whatever it was meant to be, and then make a promise or a declaration that everyone could hear.
When it began I was told to go back and put on some socks, but it was difficult to understand because I had done the same exercise barefoot the day before. When I ran back to the start, it seemed as though I was the last guy doing the course, as everyone else was looking on and perhaps cheering too?
I kept on saying that I had done the first obstacle before and that I really didn’t need socks, but it quickly dawned on me that socks don’t stand a chance against sharp objects when you stand on them!
The next few things were peculiar. I remember having to get through a window that had small burglar bars – when I woke up I thought that perhaps my hips became supper supple to pass through a small square hole.
Perhaps I was going to be joining Cubs? (I joined once before, but this never happened?!?) The obstacles were designed for small children to crawl through, but I was determined to finish and get the prize!
One of the instructors told me how to go through the course and then at the end I was to say a prayer-like thing similar to what the Anglicans do (where on earth did that come from?!), but all I could think of was the Benediction and I was concentrating on that so much that I forgot most of the other instructions for the course.
After walking through the entrance with my socks on, I was given a duvet to get into. (I sleep under a heavy duvet and enjoy the pressure, even if I’m stinking hot underneath.) It was a dull yellow-cream colour and I remarked that it wasn’t colourful enough. When I saw someone react to that remark I quickly said I was kidding, but a guy came out with two rather colourful duvets before I started crawling under things.
The first obstacle was a fence-like structure and it may have been like a cage, so once going in nobody could help you until you finished the course. Odd, but all the holes and tunnels that I crawled through were the size of drain pipes. Nothing was in a straight line, because at one point I was crawling through a pipe that went under another pipe. I recall near the end that there was a gutter-like tunnel or slide I went through. I didn’t fit into it, but that didn’t stop me from trying anyway. Strange how nothing broke and no instructor told me I was too big!
Near the end I was reminded, by an instructor who could see I was confused at what to do next, that there was a prize that I had to look for. There were leaves and post-it notes on a step. I felt for bumps and then saw that there was an odd bit of metal underneath some more leaves in the corner under that step.
I brushed the leaves aside and picked up a round metal container.
I recall the immense feeling of accomplishment and radical achievement when I opened the lid to find a small pin badge. It was round. Before I picked it up out of the container, I remembered that I had to say something. The words just came to me. They were not the Benediction, but they were more like declarations of where I have come since I started my journey with God way back in the day.
I said a lot of things similar to what I attempted to promise a group of guys in the MDT mens’ group on the last meeting around a fire.
My alarm clock was waking me up – I don’t think I finished my dream, cause next I was in a hall of some kind and there were things I shouldn’t have been looking at… And then I was in an A-set maths class with Mr. ReindeerMan sitting next to me having been asked a rather complicated question and so I went searching for the correct class, cause I was in another set class for maths. I first looked upstairs and then to get downstairs there was a steep slide which I wasn’t too keen on sliding down, but the kind photocopy lady offered to help me down (a mix of Sun Gardens and St. Alban’s College – weird!). I found another way down cause that height looked too scary. The odd part was that I found a ramp down that took me down to where the staff room (Knoll House common room) toilet “garden” was. I began walking along the classrooms again, but these were pre-school children doing high school?
Thankfully the second alarm clock awoke me from my slumber!!
I enjoy working with people younger than myself – I feel younger than my actual age and people do ask what grade I’m in, so that’s my gift I guess. I know that I have been trying to find a good extra-mural activity to do to assist in strengthening my body, so perhaps my brain was going through the thought process and weighing up the options?
The reference to an old house with dead skeevers in front comes from playing too much Skyrim!
Spikes in the ground might come from a Police Academy movie when one of the characters is found to be sleeping on a bed of nails? I’m a fan of socks on my feet. Maybe my feet got out from under the duvet and my brain was instructing me to pull them back under?
Toastmasters is not my cup of tea, besides it has changed very much into a leadership training in speaking, rather than just curing you of your fear of public speaking. I know I write well, but I’m not too keen on speaking! Although that pin looked like the Toastmaster’s pin, I have an idea it might be used in Cubs too? It was a small round dark blue-ish pin on a round piece of green-brown felt.
The big reference to Scouts or Cubs is curious. I didn’t give Scouts a thought, but I think I’m too old for it anyway? Rock climbing is probably where the height references came from – I get chills in my fingers when I climb anything taller than a single-story rooftop. At one stage I did give wrestling a thought and I’m really glad that I didn’t have dream-waves in that direction! I enjoyed rock climbing at school, especially the bouldering in the old farm house which is where the music facility now stands.
I don’t remember what it was that I was looking at in the hall. It was something that seniors past moved or did and wasn’t there by the time the maths class started. That hall had nothing to do with school, so it was pretty odd! Jonathan did say he would assist me with maths if I went into university again. Glad I didn’t follow that route – the piano apprenticeship is much more fun than going to university!!
If there’s a typo, I will blame the spell check button I clicked!