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.
“Optional. You don’t have to have a job…I put school and temporary. So, at first, I was going to put career. Then I saw work. So work sounds like the better form of job. So career goes to work. Job is temporary.”
“My mom has always been there for me. Mainly my mom because my real dad wasn’t there…growing up as a kid, so I didn’t have no one to look up to but my mom. My mom really stood up… It hits me all the time just thinking about it like what she went through. She is a rather strong woman, so I just feel I owe her everything. I’ve got to go and get it. I am young right now. I can take advantage of whatever I want to and stay focused and I can achieve it.”
“Positive: white/caucasian, Berkeley, California, male, introspective. Negative: white/caucasian, down to earth, Christian.”
“You are making money.”
“Yes. I’m a mix of everything. It’s important because I feel connected to everyone.”
“[Job is priority because] you are always there to get paid. So it has to be a priority to make sure you do everything right in order to get paid.”
“Well, I’ve known I wanted to do forensic anthropology since I was in seventh grade. And I have to go for my Ph.D. So, I have like 10 more years in school, even though I’m a senior in college.”
“My recent like ACT score was like a 29, so if I score that well I’m a junior or senior, I could stay with that score. And it’ll help me throughout to get to trade school, and instead of having to work like a part-time job and do school and then pay, it’ll help me pay off school debts…That’s what we talk about in JROTC. And so they’re had the Navy come, and I’m just waiting on, they had the National Guard come, the Navy. And I’m waiting on the Marines to come…I’m flight commander [in the ROTC]. Eighth grade me and my best friend were in the same class. And he was talking about how he wanted to be in the Air Force. And I went home, and I talked to my mom, and my mom was like, well, instead of being in the Air Force, you could be in the Marines or the Navy. And I was like stop. The Marines sounds good. And so I’ve been doing a little bit of research, yeah… Lots of discipline, and since I’m in tenth grade, I’m what they call an upperclassman. And like we’re learning aerodynamics right now. So, yeah, that’s an opportunity.”
“Just I like, like the representation of people. Like I’d rather be on the defense attorney side because that’s just, I find that, I don’t know. I find that a little bit more entertaining, and it pays better because people would pay almost anything for a good defense attorney in a really bad case, especially if they’re innocent.”
“My biggest challenge will be raising capital (money). I will have to be diligent about saving money and maintaining good credit.”