Still going to school even though I died. (dream)

Image by Midjourney

DREAM #1

I'm a ghost. But I still have exams to sit for. I'm in a school, and one of the test administrators can see me and some of the other test-taking ghosts. She guides me to my seat so I can take the test so I can get a good career. 

DREAM #2

I wake up and go down the stairs. My mother is sitting at the dining room table eating breakfast. We have a nice conversation about the upcoming day when I realize this is wrong. She's not supposed to be alive. This isn't real. 

Then I wake up and I prepare to go downstairs. I meet my mom down there. I prepare breakfast and she prepares for the day. Then I realize: she's not supposed to be alive. This is a dream.

Then I wake up and I wait for my mother to come home and come into my room. I've got to do something before she gets here. Then I realize: she's not supposed to be alive. I'm in another dream.

This happens several more times before I actually wake up and realize that my mother is, in reality, not alive. 

INTERPRETATION

My mother recently passed away. I was taking some classes while she was sick, and even before then, it just felt like never-ending homework and exams and busy work. I felt dead inside. I dropped some classes when she got sick. I dropped all of them when she died. 

The extra time I gained from dropping everything I was doing is necessary to take care of her estate, but I can sense that I'm having a very hard time emotionally processing her death. It doesn't feel real. I think I'm having some kind of existential crisis on top of grieving her.