Today's OneWord: Joyful

They expected us to be joyful. They expected us to bounce up and down in our brightly cushioned seats with a childish glee, our knees knocking together in an unbridled, unprofessional ecstasy. We weren't joyful. We didn't bounce. Not even a smile flashed across a single pair of lips in the room.

The board of trustees waited in silence for a signal of affirmation, be it applause or a whistle, or snapping fingers. No such affirmation occurred. The quiet continued for a good twenty minutes after the announcement, with no one daring to break it.

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