The Story of Roderick

Roderick was finishing up his dinner and had spent the meal having conversations with nearly everyone at Bright Bridge when I was introduced to him. Seeing his involvement with the people at the program, I asked Roderick his thoughts on the place. He told me that he had been a resident at Bright Bridge for four years and had watched them transform his life and that of many others. Roderick attends church at the ministry every Sunday. He told me that one thing he learned from the program was to “treat others as kindly as possible”.

Roderick grew up in Pensacola and attended school until about midway through high school, when he dropped out and got his G.E.D. From there, his life spiraled downward. He went to federal prison three times and couldn’t escape the pattern. However, after his last incarceration, Roderick took it upon himself to turn his life around, and he has not been in legal trouble in the past 17 years. Roderick lost everything when he went to prison and has been fighting homelessness since. Roderick told me to finish my education and to take advantage of it. He warned me to keep my work ethic high so that I would never become under-qualified for jobs that I would want. His life is more stable now than it has ever been, and he has every intention of continuing to fight for the life he wants. It was an honor to have this conversation with Roderick, and to learn so much about resilience from a man who has gone through it all.