The Road Wasn’t Straight
By Kenneth Hopkins | The Resilient Mind
People ask me all the time how I ended up working at The Road Called STRATE.
Some assume I had a plan. Others think I knew someone who opened a door for me.
The truth is much simpler.
I just kept working.
Not because life was easy. Not because every opportunity worked out. And definitely not because I always made the right decisions.
I worked because, for most of my life, work wasn’t just a paycheck—it was survival.
I grew up learning that if I wanted something, there was a good chance I was going to have to figure it out myself. Foster care, homelessness, sleeping in cars, under trees, on park benches, and in cheap hotels weren’t stories I heard from someone else. They were chapters of my own life. Through every setback, one thing remained constant: I never stopped looking for the next opportunity to work.
That mindset started early.
As a teenager, the small allowance I received each week wasn’t enough to do the things I wanted to do. Instead of complaining, I walked across the street and asked a business owner if I could help stock coolers for extra money. That wasn’t some life-changing job, but it taught me a lesson that would follow me for decades:
Opportunity usually belongs to the person willing to ask.
Later, I started working at Walmart as a cashier. One day an opportunity came up to learn how to operate a forklift. I had never driven one before, but I volunteered anyway. That single decision led to promotions, leadership opportunities, and eventually managing remodel teams that traveled from store to store. It wasn’t the forklift that changed my life—it was the willingness to step into something unfamiliar.
But life isn’t a straight line.
Success introduced new temptations. Poor decisions, unhealthy habits, and addiction eventually cost me that opportunity. Before long, I found myself homeless again, sleeping outside and wondering how I had fallen so far after working so hard.
Looking back, I learned something important:
Work ethic can open doors, but character determines whether you get to stay in the room.
That was a painful lesson, but one I needed to learn.
Life gave me another chance.
I returned to school, earned my business degree, worked in the corporate world, and eventually started my own moving company. For several years it was successful. Then life changed again. Divorce, financial pressure, and another season of homelessness forced me back into survival mode. At one point I was working multiple jobs, barely sleeping, trying to outrun my circumstances. I pushed myself so hard that I literally fell asleep behind the wheel after a moving job and crashed into a wall.
That accident taught me another lesson:
Work ethic doesn’t mean destroying yourself. It means showing up consistently while also taking care of your body, your mind, and your future.
Then something happened that changed my life in a completely different way.
I enrolled at Colorado Media School because I wanted to learn storytelling and digital media. I wasn’t chasing a specific job—I was investing in another skill. That decision eventually led me to an internship at The Road Called STRATE.
I came in with a camera in my hand.
I learned.
I asked questions.
I volunteered for more responsibility.
Over time, that internship turned into much more than creating videos. Today I manage digital media, maintain our website and social platforms, and help administer our Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, connecting young people with housing resources and opportunities to rebuild their own lives.
Looking back now, I realize something.
None of the jobs I worked were wasted.
Stocking coolers taught me initiative.
Walmart taught me leadership.
The moving company taught me entrepreneurship.
Homelessness taught me empathy.
Media school taught me communication.
Every season—even the painful ones—prepared me for the work I do today.
People often ask what the secret to success is.
I don’t think it’s talent.
I don’t think it’s luck.
I don’t even think it’s having the perfect plan.
I think it’s developing the kind of work ethic that refuses to quit while remaining humble enough to keep learning.
The Road Called STRATE didn’t just give me a job.
It gave me a purpose.
Today, when I sit across from a young person trying to find housing, employment, or hope, I don’t just see a client.
I see someone standing at the beginning of their own road.
And if my journey has taught me anything, it’s this:
Your circumstances may shape your story, but your work ethic helps write the next chapter.
The Resilient Mind 
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