Being A Host Makes Me Anxious, I’d Sooner Be A Guest Any Day

A coda: last month, we all went on holiday to Cornwall. My brother and his girlfriend, my friend and her boyfriend, and me. My parents started the week with us, too, but when they left, I became de facto host and felt the panic rising. Was everybody having fun? Did they even like each other? It took walking down to the beach, sitting on a bench and repeating a silent mantra out to sea – “I am not responsible for everyone’s enjoyment”– to calm down.