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.
“Accomplishments, code switching, reputation, money, frustration, and time…I just feel like with the career that I’m in you have to go and be different, other than yourself, in order to sort of like, fit into the work and just kind of pass the day, even though you’re not putting in your full Black(?) self.”
“Because pretty much it’s like work is like almost like a halfway point to your career. So what you’re wanting to do in life, and once you get your career, it’s like that’s what you want to do.”
“Compensation.”
“Boredom.”
“Don’t let it get to you.”
“My econ professor for the past 2 semesters, I had the same one for macro and micro, she runs two nonprofit orphanages in South Africa. She uses her money wisely and stuff…She is sharing those stories. Yeah, I never thought I’d do that, but here I am and I love it. That led me to, you can do your job, but then if you actually work hard… you are going to end up finding something else that you might do different but you…still get the same good feeling about…”
“Stability.”
“Sometimes they will get in my way. I am very serious. When I’m trying to achieve something like trying to finish homework or something, they will hit me up and they will be ‘do you want to come chill?’ That is my decision to either go out. It is very tempting, extremely tempting to go out and go hang out with them because they are like dang, I could be out right now having a good time, or I could be here trying to do this paperwork, trying to finish this and get a failing grade. It just depends on choices, and the same thing with work as well. Sometimes they will hit you up and you will be like no I have to go to work. That is hard with relationships with friends and stuff like that because of work and stuff. I am just going off the rails, so I am going to stop myself.”
“[I know someone who] work out in Silicon Valley. I don’t know the specifics about what she do because she can’t really tell because she works for a corporation. She travels the world. If she wants to come to Atlanta, all she do is hop on a plane, come to Atlanta. When she leaves, she hops on a plane, goes back to Cali. If she feels like going out… she can hop on a plane and go out of the country and she is getting paid to hop on the plane.”
“The most important things impacted on my journey is believing myself that what is now will be change… and work hard to achieve my goal that even though there’s barrier[s] along the way, have faith in God and think what [is] the future ahead of me and for my family.”