03/08/2026
Our quilt began with one question.
What brings you joy?
Over several weeks, forty teenagers from Friends Of Anstee Bridge shared stories about music, family, films, pets, places, art, memories and dreams.
These words were written from those conversations & shared at their graduation.
Sometimes it feels
the world tries to reduce us
to a label,
a behaviour,
a struggle
To what we produce
It’s easy to forget that
You are the stories you carried home from childhood,
the family holidays that are part of your bones.
You are music—
personal playlists,
the rhythm tapped on drums,
records from decades ago,
Belting out a tune in the music room,
You are Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole,
Fine details of wonder.
You are doodles of spiders,
Shapes in your imagination,
graffiti art that stands out in a crowd,
maps that turn Teddington into a fantasy story
You are Marvel heroes and horror movies,
Video games and films with friends
You are patterns and shapes
You are the sea—
You are someone who finds joy in caring
Standing up for what you believe in.
You are cupcakes and brownies
cooling on our counter,
baking something sweet
To fill the air
You are flowers and butterflies
You are a dream of train journey,
driving toward somewhere new.
Yet, you are history,
dinosaur footprints,
Your grandmas bracelet
Family travels,
foreign languages,
Volunteering and weekend adventures
Childhood stories shared between neighbours
You are patches stitched together
Forging a new identity
You are the face that your pets look forward to coming home
cats curled on blankets,
dogs waiting at the door,
all the small loves that make a life feel like home.
You are your art.
You are your stories
You are the collection of patchworks
You are the patience that stitched this together
You are all these tiny moments
And when you hold them all together
The music
The art
The stories
The people
You become bigger than a label
You are the light in the dark
You are radical joy.
