I woke up at the crack of dawn on Monday in a tizzy. It all felt so real. My younger brother, Ben, and I had been home alone when I heard him scream bloody murder. There was a long, black snake slithering up the bannister heading straight towards him.

     That’s when the chase started. Ben and I were running around the house as this unusually fast snake trailed us. We finally locked ourselves in my bedroom with our dog, but when we heard her bark, her mouth never opened. Ben and I looked at each other. When we looked back at our dog, she was no longer a dog; it was the snake. We once again ran out of the room while being chased by this shape-shifting snake.

     You know those dreams that disorient you when waking up because they felt so real? That’s exactly what this was. I stared at my ceiling for the next few hours trying to fall back asleep, contemplating what the dream meant and thinking about the upcoming day. 

     I wasn’t even a week in and could already feel the wrath of junior year. All of my teachers telling me how crucial this year is for my future, the talk of building my resume outside of school, and reminders that I’ll have to register for AP tests was on my mind nonstop. Add in the feeling that I wasted one of my last summers of high school by locking myself in my room to study for the SATs, just for them to be cancelled six days before I was supposed to take them, and you get my mental state. 

     I went on with my day as usual, logging onto Zoom for my classes. I’m still trying to get used to this whole online school thing, but I don’t think I ever will. 

     My first Monday of junior year was finally over, and I was starting on the hours of homework I had piled up on Google Classroom. I always use Mondays as a day to get ahead of the work I have for the week because it’s the one night I have completely free. 

     As I was wrapping up my Pre-Calc assignment I heard the same scream as my dream, but this time it was my mom, not my brother. 

     My dog was out back when she started barking like crazy. When my mom looked out, she saw a black pile on the ground next to the dog. Our dog came running inside, and my mom went to investigate. 

     That’s when she screamed bloody murder. There it was: the long, black snake. 

     My family watched from safety on the back deck as it slithered away into the bushes. I stood there in shock; was this a sign? The same long, black snake coming to me twice, once in my dream and another in real life had to mean something.

     Snakes in dreams can have multiple meanings, negative and positive. They can represent a toxic person in your life or be a sign of health or healing. They can mean your feeling overwhelmed by something or can symbolize overcoming your fears. The type of snake is also very important; a cobra means something different than a garden snake.

    I determined that the type of snake in my dream and backyard was a garden snake. These represent something you were once overly conscious about, but you now realize that it’s not a threat to you. 

     Junior year is scary, I’m not going to lie. I said it earlier; I could feel the wrath not even a week in, but you have to trust yourself and your abilities. It’s not out to purposely trip you up and fail you like I thought it was, it’s just here to challenge and push you.