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 put like hardworking/dedicated. So when I like have my mind set on something, I’m very like focused on it, and I like only want that, so I’ll work towards that. And like I try not to distract myself with other things around me, so I’ll really like dive straight into whatever I’m focused on.”
“College makes my future changes and teach me something new and learning things that is been new to me.”
“I am 45 years old married. I work as an accountant. I spend my time with my children and husband. I live in New York. I make my money as an accountant. My husband, kids, and family are important to me. I feel my future turned out well.”
[At 45] “By 45 our whole family is stable, well travelled. By 45, you kind of feel like you’re settling down, like you’re just there. You know, like you just go to work every day until you hit retirement age.”
“I think the experiences that have impacted my pathway the most has been my education. In school everything I have learned shaped what I wanted to do when I grew up. Also seeing what other peoples’ experiences have been and the encouragement of my family has helped me get to where I am.”
“I just put African.”
“I have had lots of coaches and my uncle as well who is an assistant coach. He has helped me, teaching me to become a coach when I grow up. [The best advice he has given me is] Just put yourself out there. Don’t be scared to apply for a coaching job even if it is not a head coach job. Make sure you are always going out there. He didn’t want to be an assistant coach or a head coach. He has just been doing it for me. But now that he has been doing it, he loves it. So he wants to be a coach now, so just by putting himself out there.”
[At 45] “I think I will be a judge, a criminal justice judge after being a lawyer. I will have a family and maybe be buying a second or third house. [Moderator: What does your work look like as a judge?] I’m not sure about that yet. Maybe I will have a court room on certain days and maybe doing work on Sundays. If I am a judge, I won’t have much work to do since I am not a lawyer.”
“A career. So when I be in school, it’s all like career, career, career, all right. So…career is calling it. And if you feel like I got a calling to do something, there’s your internal reason why you do it. And so, no matter what hours you work, maybe how much you get paid, if you really like doing it, and you feel like that’s your calling, you going to do it, because it’s speaking to you internally. And can’t nobody else take that away from you, so…”
“I feel that… mentors, professors, and therapists have been very helpful.”