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.
“There’s more Mexicans here now than anything, so like I feel like the only time you ever really feel racism if you go like down to Naches or you go up to West Valley…West Valley is predominately white school as well. And there’s like two Mexicans and two Black kids in the entire school.”
“When I [think of] career I put professional, business]. So not that it is always a bad thing but that those type of people usually don’t have free time. They don’t have a lot of extra time to do extra things. I just saw corporate in an office kind of thing.”
“To be honest, personally this is what I have struggled with the most. This is what stresses me out more than anything because there are so many different things that I have wanted to do with my life. I just haven’t quite figured what I 100 percent want. I want to be Oprah. That is always what I have wanted to be, so everything I have wanted to do has been borderline unattainable, especially in 2019 and social media and the whole thing. If I could go back, maybe I would have studied journalism, but I thought being an actor would get me to being Oprah, and then I realized how crazy everything was. I love talking to people and learning about different things and getting things out of them not in a materialistic way, but I just think I would have been a really good interviewer. I wasn’t sure how to get there, and I feel if that was I was meant to do with my life, it would have happened sort of. That is kind of the spiritual part of me. I don’t know. I am still kind of waiting for what my actual purpose is.”
“So, yeah, so today four years, finishing up. Plan on doing internships, research, and then my master’s program. So I plan on doing internships, research there, networking, and then I want to take a gap year before like beginning my Ph.D. program. So I’ll take a gap year in Oregon. Plan on just having like a full time job living in an apartment and then start my Ph.D. program, more research, yeah, just working on like a dissertation, more networking, getting my degree, networking, career, yeah, like settling into my career.”
“If it’s a job then you chose to do it but if its work then you feel obligated to do it.”
“I put passion, long term, satisfying, enjoyable, and endgame. And love. I put love too.”
“I want to work in the E.R. as a nurse, transporting hospital patients. I want to move to California. I want to work in California.”
“[Which word feels most positive?] Probably career.”
“It is stressful, but I don’t mind it because I get paid good for it. I make my own schedule, so it is awesome. I work whatever I want.”
“Millionaire, having fun just looking for more properties, more ways to make money. Switching hobbies every month because I like to switch it up. I get tired of the same thing. I want to have any children like 7 or 8.”