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.
“[At age 45] A. In a booming big city, coastal preferably. B. I have my own established business I oversee. C. Family and happiness are most important at this stage in my life. D. My wife and kids as well as my mother and sister. 2. It feels extremely optimistic. Thinking about the future and the possibilities make me excited.”
“Exposure to the environment that I am surrounded by. What I mean by that is just being able to look around myself and my surroundings and see what I am surrounded by, which is poverty, people not being able to make it, living off of the next pay check and just not having the money that they need and just knowing that I don’t want to be like that. So taking that into this direction and not just being something that I live off like – well something that keeps me going. In order for me to be successful nowadays you have to have a degree, something on paper so that way you can be in a higher profession. Just knowing that I see children suffering; every day I will see parents not being able to take care of the kids and stuff like that. I am not trying to be like that. I’m trying to be successful.”
“I am majoring in English in college. I might have to get a first popular book so that way people know when I release later ones that oh that is a good series. I want to read that. Finish whatever series I want to do and get movies based off that. [End goal is] success.”
“I am starting right here; I am making beats right now, starting a music label. I am coming up. Networking, grind hard and get my GED for my education. Sacrifice, team work makes the dream work. Staying focused. I am learning the game. Prospering and I am learning every aspect of everything that I want to do. Long [block] for the long shot, you know. Creating different streams of revenue. At the end, I am a multi-platinum producer, real estate owner and business owner with different businesses.”
“Six figure salary.”
“Leadership.”
“I always go on YouTube or like social media to people that’s like already professional at it, and I just learn from them…”
“So a job, like…you don’t get the job that want, but, you know, money is money. Like us kids, we work at McDonald’s. We going to be happy, but at the same, we’re going to be like, we really don’t want to do it.”
“They feel differently because a job is something your required to do. So for example if you get hired somewhere you have to work there and follow the rules of the place. However, work itself can be done very independently. Work I think can be anything a person does that makes them productive such as cooking or working out.”
“Job and work feel similar in the fact that you get paid to do them.”