The brain is a funny thing. It reminds you of things that happened 25 years ago and yet, you cannot remember what the hell you got up for when you went to the kitchen. Beats me. And hey, before anyone is out there saying it: no, it is not old age. I have always been the one that seems to forget what I am looking for while rummaging my dresser drawers or shelves in the pantry. Also, past stuff no one needs? I am here for it!

It is April 4th today in 2025 and in my brain it is too,except the year is 1996. I am not longing for the past but it is coming anyways when I sleep. Like time traveling,maybe?

I am wearing that periwinkle skater dress, the backless one that I was forbidden to wear in school, but I wore it anyway. It has tiny pale pink flowers, and it moves with me and the air as I walk down the stairs from the main school building. I could go faster if only I wasn’t wearing my signature jelly platform shoes. They hurt a bit, but women are conditioned from the get go that beauty is to suffer, so we go on. No pain, no gain.

So run, little one, run down the stairs; you go then.

The warm wind blows my long mahogany hair on my face and I get annoyed as it gets stuck on my glossy lips.

I need a moment to adjust myself and my sunglasses, which also got tangled in that hairy, sticky mess. I open my black leather backpack and try to find a compact mirror inside the black hole of school papers and notes. A small foldable hairbrush suddenly materializes, and it is followed by a small black mirror.

When I look at the mirror, much to my surprise, I don’t see the long wavy hair, the glossy, tangled mess or the sticky sunglasses. I see me as I am now, not the me of yore.

This is how I know I am dreaming . My mind is somewhere in time playing a party trick on me. My body is here and now. I close the mirror, the time is up and the loud click sound of its closure brings me back. I am awake in my present bed, eyes wide open and mouth agape.

If this isn’t time travel, I don’t know what it is. I wish I could go back to sleep and figure it out.