"I wanted to be with the kind of people I'd grown up with, but you can't go back to them and be one of them again, no matter how hard you try"

This quote by Ethel Waters talks with the difficulty of trying to return to a place or group of people that one has actually grown up with. It recommends that regardless of how hard one might attempt, it is impossible to return and be just one of them again. This could be analyzed in many ways, yet maybe seen as a suggestion that life is continuously changing and that it is very important to approve as well as accept the modifications that feature it. It might also be viewed as an alerting to not attempt to hold on to the past, as it is impossible to recreate it. Eventually, this quote speaks to the suggestion that one needs to accept today and also progress in life, as opposed to trying to recreate the past.