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.
“I have to first get my…finish my general ed classes, and then I have to start taking courses…after these two years, I have to take two more years of just courses that are just based on my career that I’m choosing. And then after that, I still have to get my master’s degree.”
“Hardworking: Employers and managers always appreciate hardworking employees. This can lead to promotions and tons of career opportunities. Passionate: People can mistake passion for arrogance or aggression. Managers can get jealous, become intimidated by passionate employees.”
“For economic purposes like you would network to try to get more money or network to try to find certain prices, a lower price than it would originally be for stuff like that. I also put computers and for networking for becoming more social because for networking you are going to have to communicate with people in order to get what you want or to benefit yourself.”
“My aunt, she talk to me about college, right? And she always say how she was the first to go to her college, and like how school is different from back then. And like she always tell me the story about how she didn’t know that she had to pay for college, but it was like her surroundings, different people who saw good stuff in her, they helped out, and so she didn’t have to pay…so like that’s motivation right there.”
“Draining.”
“Career minded, a culture that make you want to break the chain and do better for myself. Lack of options are choices for African American. Sometimes money is also a barrier so this would be a negative factor. When things are offered only to those within certain income brackets.”
“My friend started at an art school for fashion marketing while I’m at a general university.”
“So and then it goes on to me hopefully joining the military, and then kind of like having, moving onto where I’m hopefully finding a career I like to do in the military…Yeah, so like I pick a career, and then I have an arrow going back to the military in case like I choose a career that doesn’t suit me right away. I like choose another career, and then move on…And then I have to go to live my life through the military is what I want to do. And then once I live up to the time to retire from the military, but I’ll still be young enough at that point, so I put look for a career outside of the military that is still linked to the things I learned and training in the military. And then, hopefully, I’ll find the career and enjoy it, but if not, then I go back, and I draw another arrow back to looking for another career outside of the military.”
[At 70] “Lay up, watch football, and still getting paid from the hard work and dedication I put into my career…”
“I put low confidence and you can feel alone because sometimes you will feel alone but then there will be people that you think aren’t there, but in reality they are right behind you in the steps that you are taking.”