Friendship is a very important part of anyone’s life. Sometimes it’s hard to find, but when you do? It’s worth it. Friendship means having someone who is with you when you need it, someone who loves and supports you by their own choice, someone who picked you voluntarily. It’s someone who decided you would be their person for a reason that had nothing to do with being blood and/or legally related to you. Members of your family can, of course, be your friends; but usually, that is not the case. Usually, your friends are people that you chose and people who chose you, people who are willing to stand by you no matter what. Friends don’t give up on one another. Friends are there for each other through good and bad, stand by one another’s side though thick and thin. Friends know when to push the boundaries and when to pull them back. Some friends, however, don’t know that. It is just so easy to follow friends into bad habits, and often, that’s how you end up caught up in a life you didn’t think you would ever end up in. You just wanted to help a friend. And then, somehow, your entire life is upside down. At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter goes to the café where MJ works, because he had previously promised her and Ned that he would tell them the truth of what happened to him, so that he could get them back in his life. However, after seeing MJ’s injury and how happy she and Ned both looked even without knowing him, he takes a step back. He decides to let them live their own happy lives away from the mess his existence had previously forced them into. One could argue that Peter shouldn’t have done that. That Peter and they went through some really messed up stuff together, and by not telling them the truth, he is robbing them of their agency to choose for themselves. He is not being truthful, and, to a certain degree, I understand. But I also understand Peter’s point of view. Because sometimes your friends don’t drag you into terrible situations on purpose. Sometimes they get caught into these terrible situations, and you choose to follow them there because you are a true friend, and because you love them. But it’s not what either of you truly wants. Sometimes, friendships means knowing when to let go of one another. Sometimes, love is taking a step back and surviving long enough to save yourself first. Friendship is a lot of things. But mostly, it’s complicated. Really complicated. Author: Salma (young person on work experience)

One of the biggest problems we have, as young people, is saying ‘no’. Such a simple word, right? As children, we could say all we wanted. We did say ‘no’ whenever we wanted. We have said ‘no’ and ‘why’ often enough that it’s a miracle all of our parents weren’t driven nuts by it (I say this a former nursery workers… children really do love saying ‘no’ and ‘why’). And then we grew up. Then we grew up, and we were thrown into this new world of being an adult, where saying ‘no’ to things was suddenly seen as somehow taboo. As being wrong, and disrespectful, and as if saying ‘no’ immediately makes you lazy, untrustworthy, and a whole host of bad no-good qualities. To once more take an example from Spider-Man: No Way Home, do you notice how many of Peter’s problems would have been solved if he had just said ‘no’ once? Whether you believe his actions with the villains were right or wrong, if he had simply said no – as he clearly wanted to – when Aunt May made him help out the Vulture, everything in his life would have been easier. It might not have been in character for Peter Parker – especially after he learnt what was going to happen to them – but it would have made his life hell of a lot easier. The only reason he didn’t say ‘no’, is because he is a superhero, and superheroes are created with the idea that they are able to suffer through the worst with a brave smile on their faces because they are heroes and ‘that’s what heroes do’. But we aren’t superheroes. We aren’t meant to be superheroes. We don’t save the world, and us saying ‘no’ to things we find rude, annoying, disrespectful, or simply don’t want to do, won’t make the Multiverse break free. It is your right to refuse things. It’s your right to stand by what you believe in and say ‘no’. Saying ‘no’ is hard. But you know what’s harder? Never saying no. Author: Salma (young person on work experience)