I began by writing about how life in the boarding house goes in cycles and I think that when we reached the end of this year it was a seminal moment for me and for the rest of the House. The reason it was seminal is because we had six leavers who have such giant personalities and were such fun to have around the House and seeing them all leave this summer was truly heart-breaking. Ironically, it was the thing that kept us all apart that brought this group together: Covid! They arrived early in the summer of 2020 (we opened early to allow some boys to quarantine with us) and so we had Pavle Glisic, Aren Sedrakyan, Goncalo Gomes, Chester Griffiths, Christian Altschaeffl, Fedor Morgunov, and a few others, all of whom became part of the infamous ‘Covid Nine.’ Over those early weeks towards the end of summer, this group of new and old boarders became really close friends and this friendship blossomed throughout their time at Hough House which is why when we said goodbye for the final time it was really tough for all of us. Pavle was our Head of House and an HMC Scholar from Serbia and you could not meet a more polite, goodhumoured and studious person. Pavle gained one of the highest IB scores in the country and I am not sure if it was due to hard work or the copious amounts of peanut butter and Nutella he consumed! Aren, another HMC Scholar, was the most disorganised student I have ever met. He was late for everything, remembered nothing but was always smiling and it is Aren’s smile I shall remember. Christian was the tallest boarder we have ever had, even the extra 155
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