Maybe I Should Have Kept That Dream to Myself
There are some dreams you wake up from and forget almost immediately.
You open your eyes, stare at the ceiling for a few seconds, and then your brain says, Okay, moving on.
And then there are those dreams that refuse to leave.
You go about your day. You eat. You scroll through your phone. You talk to people. You laugh. You do normal human things.
And then suddenly—
the dream.
Back in your head.
That happened to me.
And honestly, I still don't know what to make of it.
Was it just a dream? Was it symbolic? Was it some kind of warning? Was it my subconscious doing what it does best—creating absolute nonsense while I'm peacefully sleeping?
I genuinely don't know.
But I do know that this particular dream bothered me enough that I eventually contacted the person I dreamed about.
And then, months later, I stopped seeing her on WhatsApp.
Yeah.
Let's go back. ⏭️
There was a woman whose number had been sitting in my phone for quite some time. We weren't friends. We weren't close. We weren't secretly having long conversations every night. Nothing like that.
Our families had known each other for years, so I knew of her and her family, and she knew of mine.
The funny part is that I originally had her number for something completely unrelated to what would happen later.
At the time, I was interested in basketball.
Very interested.
I had convinced myself that basketball was about to become my new thing. 😂
So this woman gave me the number of another woman who was involved with a basketball team.
And let me tell you, I was READY.
I messaged the basketball coach and asked about joining. She gave me some information, and naturally, my next question was:
“Okay, where do you guys practise?”
Simple question, right?
Apparently not.
She didn't give me the address.
So I asked again.
Nothing.
I asked a third time because, in my mind, Maybe she didn't see the first two messages.
Still nothing.
And that was basically the end of my basketball era before it even began. 😭
But I kept the original woman's number.
Years passed.
I didn't really see her in person anymore. We weren't talking. I wasn't thinking about her. Every now and then, I'd see her WhatsApp Status, and that was pretty much the extent of our connection.
And when I say she posted regularly, she posted regularly.
Family. Friends. Outings. Achievements. Her children. Her husband. Her career. Qualifications. Degrees. Just… life.
And honestly, she seemed happy.
She seemed to have the kind of life many people pray for.
Then one night, completely out of nowhere, she appeared in my dream.
In the dream, I was at a huge party. There were so many people around, including people I knew from church. It was one of those busy, crowded dreams where everyone seems to know everyone.
Eventually, the party ended.
It was nighttime, and everyone was getting ready to leave. I remember us being outside and preparing to cross the road to get into a car.
And then she appeared.
She came over and greeted my parents.
Everyone was happy to see her.
Everything felt normal.
Until she told my parents that she had cancer.
I remember it feeling like breast cancer.
The strange thing is, I don't remember her clearly saying, “I have breast cancer.”
I just somehow knew.
You know how dreams are?
Nobody explains anything, but somehow your brain gives you the information anyway.
Then I woke up.
And immediately, something felt wrong.
Not “Oh wow, weird dream.”
No.
I was genuinely uncomfortable.
I tried to dismiss it because, obviously, dreams can be completely ridiculous. I've had dreams about people, places and situations that made absolutely no sense once I woke up.
But this one stayed.
The next day, I thought about it.
Then the day after that.
Sometimes I'd forget about it, and then it would suddenly come back into my mind.
Eventually, I started thinking, What if I'm supposed to tell her?
And that's where things became complicated.
I told my parents about the dream. They suggested that I wait a little.
But I couldn't shake the feeling.
I kept asking myself the same question:
Why me?
Why would I dream about someone I hadn't properly seen or spoken to in years?
Why wouldn't someone close to her dream it?
Her husband?
Her family?
Her friends?
Someone who actually sees her every day?
Why me—the random person whose number was still sitting in her phone because of a basketball connection from years ago?
😭
And because of my beliefs, I started worrying that maybe I was supposed to say something.
So eventually, I messaged her.
I was extremely careful with my words.
I didn't tell her, “You're going to get cancer.”
Who am I to say that?
I told her about the dream and explained that I didn't know what it meant. I even suggested that she could pray about it or speak to her pastor if she wanted to.
Then I sent the message.
And immediately went to sleep.
Because apparently, stressing myself out and then sleeping was my brilliant plan.
The next day, I saw that she had replied.
And I was terrified to open it.
I waited almost the entire day.
I kept thinking, What if she's angry? What if she thinks I'm crazy? What if she thinks I'm trying to scare her?
Eventually, that night, I opened the message.
She wasn't angry.
She thanked me for telling her and started speaking positively over herself, basically rejecting the possibility of it happening.
And honestly?
All I could say was:
Amen. Amen. And Amen.
After that, I felt a little better.
Life continued.
Days became weeks.
Weeks became months.
And then I noticed something.
I wasn't seeing her WhatsApp Status anymore.
At first, I thought maybe she just wasn't posting.
But this was unusual because she used to post quite often.
Then my mind started doing what anxious minds do best:
Did she hide her Status from me?
Did she block me?
Did she change her privacy settings?
Did she stop posting because of what I told her?
I don't know.
And that's the part that still bothers me.
I eventually deleted her number because I couldn't keep staring at the situation and wondering what she thought about me.
Sometimes I regret telling her.
Maybe I should have prayed more first.
Maybe I should have asked for discernment.
Maybe “cancer” wasn't literal at all. Maybe it represented something completely different.
Maybe the dream meant something.
Maybe it meant absolutely nothing.
And then another part of me says:
Girl, you literally just told somebody about a dream you had.
You didn't curse her. You didn't wish cancer on her. You didn't tell her she was going to die. You were scared, confused and trying to do what you believed was right.
But what if she interpreted it differently?
Maybe she thought I was jealous of her life.
Maybe she thought I was trying to destroy something good.
Maybe she thought I was some strange person watching her from a distance.
Maybe she even thought—
I'm a witch.
😭
For the record, I am not.
But how do you prove you're not a witch when you're the person randomly appearing in someone's messages telling them you dreamed they had cancer?
Exactly.
You don't.
And that's why this story still sits somewhere in the back of my mind.
So now I'm curious about you.🫵🏿
Have you ever dreamed something about someone that felt too specific to ignore?
Did you tell them?
Did you keep quiet?
And if you told them, what happened afterwards?
Because maybe I'm not the only one who has ever found themselves sitting somewhere, staring at their phone, wondering:
“Did I just do the right thing… or did I make everything worse?”
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