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 feel like my parents are very supportive, and I don’t know if this is for everyone, but like they’re like helping me pay for school, which is like the only way I’m going to get the career I kind of want. So like I wouldn’t be able to do it without them because they’re like supportive.”
“Female, white, Jewish. I feel like all Jews are Jewish.”
“I feel all of the phrases would have a positive impact. I feel when individuals know how hard you work, it can sometimes be taken advantage of.”
“Coming home tired and drowsy from a place that you did something that you probably weren’t ready to go and do.”
“To me, a job is an occupation that is solely to provide a living. Work is a profession that you’re passionate about that also helps you provide.”
“I’m Latina, Mexican ethnicity. I’m not very religious. I would say I’m more spiritual, and I’m also the youngest in my family. I feel like I have a lot of people to look up to. At a younger age, I didn’t really appreciate it, because I always wanted someone to play with. My siblings were way older than me. But the older I got, the more I was able to kind of take from that and take like from their life experiences and take from their advice. So, yeah, really have grown to appreciate it.. I would kind of just like categorize as like people from like Latin America. But Mexican is kind of like more like hometown, like where you’re from, like what specific part. That’s kind of how I would differentiate the two.”
[For “work”] “I put labor, exhausted, difficult time. I feel work is more like he explained, more exhausting, something you are forced to do. When I hear the word work, I am thinking it is a lot. There is a lot to be done versus a job which is more like a career, more professional. Work sounds like you are forced to do it.”
“I am [a] very practical person and so the steps I feel like I am taking are linked to my personality trait. I also like to include things not on the defined path because I feel like external factors absolutely play role (such as family support).”
“Artist.”
“Yeah, [being female] is actually better for my career [in child development], I think.”