TEEN PERSPE CTIVES
Lucy Jilan Alice
Lucy
For me, Lucy has always been an example of a person who managed to keep very strong beliefs and viewpoints but still be kind and genuine to every person that she met. Her interest in history and economics gave her a lot of knowledge about political processes and social problems that she has been using to explain the situations that many people overlook completely. I always felt like every person who met Lucy could find the bit of understanding that they needed in her, and that is something that will always make Lucy special to me.
LUCY’S ROOM LUCY’S ROOM
“The place that feels like me? That would be my house, probably. I Can’t really explain it, It’s just so cosy and comforting, and most of my good memories are connected to it. I really like my room. I feel the safest there."
Lucy and Alice have been friends forever. They grew up together and it is probably the reason why they always understood each other so well. I always felt like the connection and peace that they share between each other was obvious to every person that they met, and the more I talked to them, the more I could notice the influence that they always had on each other.
“I think Alice and I just naturally became friends. We went through multiple same friend groups but stayed together each time. It’s hard to explain why Alice and I work so well together, we just get on perfectly. Our personalities fit with each other, and I feel like it helped both of us through the friendship turmoil of secondary school a lot.”
Lucy
Jilan
I met Jilan completely accidentally. She was in my form and the main thing about her that caught people’s attention was her way of openly and proudly expressing her opinion unlike everyone else around her. I always thought that her family and her background gave her a chance to look at things from a completely different perspective than most people in my classes, which made me very grateful to have met her.
NOT FITTING IN NOT FITTING IN
One thing about Jilan that always made me feel understood around her is the sense of unfamiliarity and slight isolation from the place she lived in that she experienced. With all the love and good memories that she had connected to Cambridge, she still could not help the fact that most of her identity belonged to a different place.
“If have a place that feels like me, it's probably not in England. Don't get me wrong, I really like Cambridge, but although I moved to the UK when I was little, I always considered France to be my home. I think my Grandma's balcony in France is probably my favourite place. This is the place that feels like me.”
"I think the fact that I am Muslim and French kind of clashes. France is one of the countries with the highest level of police violence, so it is quite ironic for me to be photographed holding "The end of Policing" book. Muslims are always brought up on TV by politicians, as if we are the problem. There was a point in time when the economy was crashing, and people were dying from Covid, but the president spent half of his speech talking about Islam."
Alice
It never failed to surprise me how much curiosity Alice has towards everything in her life, whether it is connected to her academic goals or just gaining knowledge about something in general. I believe that her constant aim to learn as much as she can and look at everything from different perspectives helped her to become a person who is able to understand almost any person who she comes across in her life.
"My mum is the person I look up to the most. In my 18 years of knowing her, I can't think of a single time she acted in a selfish or cruel way. Whether it was when I was young, and we didn't have too much or now when it could be considered "easy" to be so selfless, to have so much love and empathy for everyone around you is such a special trait. She reminds me that no matter what I spend my life doing, who I spend my time with, I should always assume the best of people and there's always room to be considerate."
Although Alice and her mother come from different generations, grew up in different countries and understandably have different viewpoints, it is interesting to see what similarities they have in their general values and ideas, and how despite all these differences, they are still able to give each other unconditional love.
“I think Lucy and I were originally in the same friend group as kids, and as the group collapsed, we sort of stayed together. We had many other friends, but with some of them, the conversations would be so blunt that it was difficult to keep it going, While Lucy and I always had similar interests in many things and would actually enjoy talking to each other. “
CHILDHOOD BESTFRIENDS
“Then there was a moment when I was experiencing my first love, and I just didn’t feel like I could talk to any other of my friends about it, and even if I did, they probably wouldn’t offer much support. This is when I texted Lucy and told her that I was almost going crazy. That was the first time when we hung out one-on-one, and I feel like our friendship evolved from that and that’s how we became best friends”
