Have you ever had a dream that changed your life? Dreams are our brain’s way to cope with reality. We dream on a nightly basis and we don’t even remember most of what our slumbering mind produces. Nor should we. The whole point, supposedly, is to get whatever troubles us out of our system. However, every now and then we have a dream that lingers on, a dream so powerful we can’t seem to let it go. Mine happened many years ago. I’d just started my first year at the university and I was looking forward to a new beginning. I was hoping to turn my life around, make friends, open up to the world. I’d been having huge problems fitting in throughout high school so I thought that maybe it was a good time to do something about it. Well, that’s easier said than done. For two months I was the solitary one tucked away in the corner of the lecture hall. It’s not that I didn’t like my fellow students – I just felt I had nothing important to contribute which others might find interesting. Days went by and I still could not bring about the change I so desperately yearned for. Then one December night it came to me. I dreamt about running with a group of unfamiliar young people, yet whom I knew were my close friends. It was a late summer’s afternoon, we were full of joy, we laughed and talked. We ran towards a forest along a gravel road winding through a meadow. When we reached the woods the sun was already down. There, among the trees, was a small town square with a fountain lit up by street lanterns and surrounded by old tenement houses. The road cut through the square and lead to a giant iron gate on opposite side. I stopped for a moment, struck by the oddity of the scene, and noticed that everyone was gone, although I could hear their muffled voices coming from one of the buildings. They were having a party and I wasn’t invited! I felt utterly alone and abandoned. I was about to go back when a girl approached me and said, ‘Why aren’t you coming in? We’ve saved you a seat.’ I woke up completely shattered. I couldn’t stop thinking about that dream, it made me uneasy and depressed, but it also made me think. Will I ever belong? Will I ever be happy? Tormented by the dark thoughts I became convinced that the only way to rid myself of them is by turning the fateful dream into a painting. I’d never painted anything before (or after, for that matter) but somehow I knew exactly how to do it. After the picture was complete I was finally able to find peace. Also, it is because of it that I met my future wife.