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 don’t consider myself Mexican because I was born here. My first language is English. My parents came from Mexico. They taught me everything I know in Spanish, so I don’t really consider myself Mexican. It is more Latino.”
“It was important, and it got into what I wanted to do. It is my passion, and it is amazing that I can do it by myself. I don’t need someone telling me what to do. I can boss myself; I can make my own schedule. I literally still do this right now, so I feel like it is not going to be a big change because I make my own schedule.”
“Putting yourself in a negative situation definitely makes you stagnant in life or puts you down in life. You don’t really go up at all. You stay the same or you go down. Yeah.”
“I put living in a city, most likely Seattle, by myself or with roommates, having my degree from university, and getting a job in a STEM career. And by 45, I’ll be married, have a well-paying job from a STEM career like engineering, computer science, or physics. I have a family, and then by 70, retired, traveling, or relaxing.”
“[At 25] I live in Louisiana. I live in Texas. I am a nurse. The important things to me are good health, family, safety and security, good paying job, God, and friends. My family, God and friends are important to me.”
“At 25, 6 years from now, so hopefully I either have my bachelors or masters in accounting or finance. I don’t know which one I am going towards first. Probably living in Ft. Myers, mostly because I go to school there and I familiarized myself with the area. I will probably be working at something. I see myself starting my life with my significant other and probably living [in] an apartment somewhere. At 45 hopefully by then I have had some peace of mind. I am still employed.”
“[At 25] Bought a house.”
“Stress.”
“Keep that tunnel vision, yeah.”
“At 25 I hope to be graduated with my bachelors. I hope to have a job in the field that I am passionate about. I think I’d want to be living in an area close to LA but not where it’s too crowded, maybe like Calabasas. I would like to have my own business running by then but also be working for a company to support myself. I hope to travel a lot and spend lots of time with my family who are very important to me.”