Hysteria

Three weeks to go, and every meeting I attend feels infused with the rising scent of hysteria. Tonight’s meeting hijacked at one point by conversation veering wildly into realms of fantasy involving (if I read the signs correctly) suggestions of senior leaders also entering into role of Heads of Year. Sit on hands and forcibly resit temptation to ask if what colleagues are describing (in wildly spiralling crescendo of manic exuberance) is not actually part of current House Leaders’ job descriptions. Meeting also derailed somewhat by J describing in excruciating detail the level of micro-management involved in carrying out what I had, perhaps in my naiveté, always assumed to be little more than a symbolic support mechanism for House structure. In moment of comparative sanity T asks quietly what impact J’s remarkable level of work has had and feel momentarily safe in believing self to be Not Alone.

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