I have had a recurring dream. It happens once in a blue moon, but whenever I have the dream, I wake up thinking back to how many years it has been since we have last seen each other. 

In this dream, I am at Santa Clara University or a place similar to it. I see my professor walking away in the distance. I want to talk to my professor, but I hesitate like I did in college. “Maybe if I walk faster, I can catch up to him,” I thought to myself and so I started walking faster. But he continues walking and is farther away from me. Finally, I gather up the courage and call out, “Professor!” He doesn’t turn around and continues walking at the same speed. “Maybe he didn’t hear me,” I figured. I call out again, but there is no change. As I see his back become smaller and smaller, I become desperate and start running and calling out to him. However, no matter how fast my legs moved and how loud I cried out, I could not catch up to him. Eventually, he disappeared into the distance. I stop running. When I looked around, all I can see is pitch black. 

“This isn’t possible,” I thought. “This has to be a dream! I need to wake up!” And then I would wake up.