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 guess because job and work is more like you are working your way to get to the point of making your family proud. I feel career is more like you are already there. They see that you have made it.”
[On joining the police] “Being female is a barrier because they always say females aren’t as strong, so they think that you can’t take down someone who is 6 ft. And being Black is kind of hard because most of the department is white, and there are a few Black people but they are in their little corner.”
“I’m continuing the trend of white males. I am an atheist who comes from a Catholic family. I am also gay. And I am a, oh, a deaf cochlear. I have a cochlear implant that I use. That is obviously why I’m able to communicate so well with you all. I often…to people, of the…clique of people who are nerds.”
“Probably race. There is a lot of heinous people out there, especially now that Trump is President. People are not afraid to speak their mind.”
“And then like taking my FE exam, which would be like the first part of like to get my engineering license and then like go back to school and still work and then take like the PE exam, which is your professional engineering license. And hopefully, in the long run, have like a good paying job. But like also, because I don’t want to only just work in like an office kind of thing, like hopefully like work on like a site or something and be more hands on.”
[On job] “I wrote part time.”
“I think job is negative. It’s like get a job. You need to get a job. You know, career is like I want to do this, so it seems more positive. I think career is long term. I personally feel like job can be anything. Like a job is a task. You know what I’m saying? If I was, if somebody is delegating me to do something, that’s going to be my job for that day. I mean, it’s not, I don’t, like she said, I think it’s personally temporary. And then like career you want to be there. You’re going to probably do that for the rest of your life and keep venturing out to better things or something.”
“As far as starting today, I’ll continue to build strong networks through my fraternity and my career. Attend more business conferences. Volunteer strategically. Become members of certain organizations, school boards, and community centers. Continue to make smart investments in the stock market. Purchase income-producing properties. Become an active grandparent, supportive in my grandchildren’s lives. Financial pillar in my family. Fishing and golf connoisseur. My goal is to become financially independent, world traveler, and a philanthropist…[Joining boards is important because] So when you want to continue to move up and be in boss positions, you have, you notice the profile and resume, you notice that, you know, a member of the school board, the business, the commerce of chambers. You know, so when you want to continue to move up, you want to be able to invest in that and to have that more as a portfolio. And in your career, those are people that you want to be dealing with and building with. So if I’m on the Chamber of Commerce board, right, and I want to do a business loan, well, connecting with these sort of businesses, I have that relationship with that person who is there, so it gets you closer to the plug…”
“When I am 45, I hope to still be with my partner in our home, or possibly a new home, but I would love to stay in Sacramento. I hope to have children by then, and a dog. I would like to earn money by teaching or operating my own child care center. It would be important to me that I have a good relationship with my partner and kids and that we are all genuinely happy. I would love to have maintained my friendships that I currently have as those people are very important to me. I would also like to have a better relationship with my family and my partner’s family, and I would love if they lived closer to us. Thinking about my future, I feel optimistic, and content. It is a time in my life that I am excited to be in.”
“Three kids, 3 dogs, a nice house in New York, a penthouse in Midtown. I’m doing a movie career. I have another big movie coming out, a few on the side, one private. I just did a music video with Rhianna and…”