Dream, reality, and laughter

In my second year of kindergarten, our annual sport festival fell on a most gorgeous autumn day. There was not a single cloud to be seen in the clear blue sky, and the sun was bright but a lot gentler than in the summer. That morning, we were told to meet in the large public playground across the street from the kindergarten. When we arrived, the chairs and tents were set up, and our teachers and parents were both busy with the final preparation for our special day.

With no regards to such effort offered by the adults, as soon as I got there, I happily sat on my chair next to one of my two childhood best friends. We started chatting, and I said to her how beautiful the sky was.

“There is no cloud in the sky, look!” I said. “Don’t you think it’s too beautiful?”

“Yes, it is!” My friend replied, looking up at the sky. “Do you think this is actually a dream?”

“You mean, this day isn’t real?” I was intrigued. “Maybe you’re right. I think this day is a dream!”

We started to pretend that what was happening around us was all a dream and not reality.

“In this dream, the sky is so beautiful!” I said.

“Look, our teachers are carrying something there. But this is a dream!” my friend chimed in.

I started laughing.

“I like this dream! But what happens once we wake up? Do you think we will have another sport festival?”

“And in that sport festival,” my friend continued, “we will sit here again.”

“And that sport festival will also be a dream!” I shouted with excitement.

At this point, we were both laughing hard like two drunken people. One of our teachers passed by and asked us what fun thing we were talking about.

“We were saying that this sport festival is a dream!” I said.

“And when we wake up, there will be another sport festival exactly like this one!” explained my friend.

We told her more details about our fun conversation, but either because we were laughing too much or because our thought process was different from an adult’s, our teacher didn’t seem to fully understand what we were trying to explain. However, seeing how much fun we were having and with her partial understanding of our conversation, she also laughed with us.

I don’t remember well what happened afterward, but that morning scene is cut out in my memory clearly and vividly like a fresh picture.