My dream began in Jamaica, at a hotel I didn't recognize, but was somehow familiar with. (I didn't realize I didn't recognize the hotel until later.) I was wearing a blue life jacket with red straps and buckles overtop of a bathing suit. I was standing on a walkway/diving wall in an oddly constructed pool. I entered the pool, and soon after a swim class asked me to get a girl out of the pool. I recognized the girl as a grade mate of mine from elementary school. My cousin (who, for the sake of anonymity, I will call April) leaned down from the side of the pool, and I got out.

(Dream skips)

I was air-drying (I actually felt the sensation of being damp and cold) when I saw a young boy with brown eyes, swim trunks, and an orange hat with an indiscernible logo near a mess of objects, one of which was the shredded, wet remains of the Bill Cipher standee I purchased at Comicon.

I went over to him, excited, and asked him if he liked Gravity Falls. He just looked at me. I began looking for the standee's remains, but they vanished.

(Dream skips)

I was on a balcony of stained wood overlooking a lush forest. My relatives on my mom's side were there. My cousins (who I'll call Summer and Madison) greeted me with a hug each. A large group of cats and dogs ran over to me, prancing around my legs, begging for attention. One dog jumped on me and scratched my leg. (I actually felt pain in the dream.) Eventually, the animals calmed down, and left me alone. One dog stayed on the balcony, a grotesquely overweight (and unrealistically large, for a small dog) wiener dog with a little wiener dog puppy standing stiffly on a flap of fat under the mother's chin. My mother said it was cute. My cousin April then pulled me aside to talk, and I realized that I was dreaming around this moment. I told April, and I confessed that I felt strange about saying it aloud. She gave me a weird look. I went to talk to my brother (who I'll call Luca) and I told him that I was dreaming. I explained how I knew (a family reunion in Jamaica wouldn't be financially possible for our family) and how the dream worked. I told him I would be here (I gestured to the environment here) for an hour or two in real time.

(Dream shifts)

I "woke up" (I possibly did actually wake up, and just drift into another dream, I really can't be sure) in what I thought was my grandparents' house. I was in the same bed as my brother, my reading light on, and my head slumped against my book, The Screaming Staircase. (Great read, btw, I totally recommend it) The digital clock read 9:05. Grandmama called us from upstairs to come get ready for church. I sat up at this, and I got out of bed. I realized that this wasn't the room I fell asleep in, and I vocalized this. The room was baby blue, with a bed and a vanity like the ones in the room I fell asleep in, a different cabinet in the same corner of the room as where a cabinet stood in real life, a VHS player in the cabinet where Grandmama's collectible porcelain bells should have been, and no door or way in and out of the room. I then woke up.

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Dream state: Lucid (Failed WILD)
Duration of sleep: 30-60 minutes

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I count myself very lucky that the very first dream I recorded was a lucid dream. Going lucid was actually far less exciting than you might have expected for me. When I made that now-mind-blowing discovery, I was more or less just like "meh" in the dreamscape, and I didn't have the time to even try to take advantage of what I wanted to happen.

I believe I was able to recall this dream so easily and vividly because I fell asleep in what could be considered a failed WILD entry. A WILD entry is where the dreamer goes from an awake state to dreaming without losing consciousness or conscious awareness of the dream. It is also known as an out-of-body experience, in some cases. A failed WILD entry would be carried out as a regular WILD entry, but the dreamer loses their conscious awareness of the dream as they enter it, which is what happened to me.

This was, in fact, my very first lucid dream, and I hope to have more in the future, as I continue to attempt a successful WILD dream.