Welcome to the Striving to Thriving Youth Quote Library. Here you’ll find a curated collection of more than 5,700 quotes from young people ages 15-22 living in communities across the United States. In the library you can see how young people describe their multifaceted identities, how they understand and apply meaning to language around job, work and career, how they think about and assign value to relationships, networking and connections, and their future goals and the education and career choices they believe will lead them there. You can also view additional notes on curation, categories and filters.
“At 45 years old at this point I have a nice home in Manhattan. I still have some property in Brooklyn. I love the Caribbean, so I have a few houses in Barbados, Bahamas and St. Vincent. I have a beautiful, exotic wife. I have 3 kids, a pit bull, a German shepherd and a Rottweiler. My kids are in school.”
[About parents] “I feel they have high expectations of you like having a really good job. When it comes to me being an actor or something, I feel they don’t think you are real about life.”
“I want to be a federal judge. I have always liked history class and I have always wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice. That is a big reach, but I feel like if I try I think I would be able to do it. I feel like I am here. I just got out of high school. I haven’t started school yet, so I don’t feel like I am up there yet. I’ll get there some day. I will be starting school really soon. I am going to be attending UC Merced as a political science major. I am going to build up from there. Throughout my whole journey, my parents are my rock because they help me with everything. Obviously, I need to work and school and work outside in order to help them help me. If I want to get here, I have to put my hard work. I can’t just rely on my parents to help me. If I want to get where I want to be, I have to put my part in school and also financially. I have to find ways to get the education that I want. When I finish college, I am planning to go to law school and that is a lot of money as well. My parents, myself, internships probably will help me get where I need to be. I want to go back to grad school at University of San Francisco and then work my way up work in firms and try to get new experiences to get to where I want to be. I have a connection sort of. My dad’s coach works in a courtroom; she is a secretary, and she is used to working with judges. She is my connection if I need help getting where I want to be and I can go and she will help me.”
“I learned about this career from a class I took in school. It was personal finance. We had to take a career quiz to show us based on our personalities.”
“At will state…They will let you go at any time.”
“Positives about job: you get paid. Positives about work: you can get paid for it and it can also be a learning experience.”
“I agree. Networking is making those connections. Connection is already having them if that makes sense.”
“Yes, my gender is especially important to me because I take a lot of time perfecting my girly look every single day. It’s what drives me and gives me my confidence. Also the ability to stay strong as a woman figure today and just being happy with what I was born with. Culture is definitely important to me when it comes to food because that’s all I mainly consume is Spanish food especially on my days off. Religion is important to me and I choose to believe in my own way. Race is important as well because that’s where my ancestors are from and what we have to remember today about our common past.”
“I think it is great being bilingual [here in Pueblo]. You have a lot more opportunities. But being Mexican is kind of – from personal experience, my own opinion, I took my car to Cadillac today. I was the only Mexican in there. They just kind of looked at me weird. I didn’t get offered any – to go to the sitting room to get water or anything like that. Other people walked in. They got offered it. They look at me like should I speak to her? Will she know English? That is my own personal experience.”
“Pretty much having my own team, I think, would be like starting a business…Having people work for you and you are making money. You are making more money than they are. You just have a bunch of people. In real estate you mostly get 60 percent of any of their cut that they make. Any commissions that they make, you mostly get 60 percent of it so you are literally just making sure they are working to make you and them money so that’s cool.”