I had a dream the other night that a mysterious guide took me to another world, and in that world was a giant arena filled with people.
The guide told me these people were my friends, and I responded, "There's no way. I don't even know this many people, much less have this many friends." But then I looked closer and realized the people were divided into groups, and each group represented the friends I have had in a given year of my life. This wasn't like a reunion--the friends were the age they were when I had friended them. So for example, there was a group of 9- and 10-year-olds from 1994 that I had been friends with in 4th grade. They looked exactly as I remember them.
What's more, the people I've been friends with over multiple years were present several times over. That is, if I was friends with someone for the first three years of high school, that person was in each of the three groups representing those years. He would be one year older in each group, and unaware of the other "copies" of himself, because the groups did not mingle.
I was able to go from group to group and revisit with my old friends. In particular, I was able to talk to people I am no longer friends with during the years when our friendships were the strongest. Each "copy" was only aware of the year in which they existed, so all they knew were the best parts of our friendships. It was great to see people before things had faded away (or worse, gone sour). The whole thing was surreal and amazing.
