Finding a family
The Priebes with Cultivate Coffee community members
Being a patient sitter for people with suicidal thoughts at John C. Lincoln Medical Center in Phoenix is not what Ethan King expected to be doing at 21. He was born in Hayward, Calif., and spent most of his childhood there. Working odd jobs to help his family make ends meet, King started his own yard cleaning business. At the time, many of his peers were involved in illicit activities,like dealing drugs or stealing car parts, to earn income.
He didn’t always make the best decisions. King became homeless and, eventually at 15, he moved to Arizona. He worked in construction for a year before returning to school and enrolling at The Learning Institute in Phoenix where he met Bethany. When he first met Bethany, Cultivate was only in its beginning stages. Within a few months, King became part of the first Cultivate cohort and helped with the shop’s grand opening.
“Bethany always treats people nice,” says King. “She’s genuine and keeps it real. She and Chris helped me through my ups and downs. They are a strong anchor [for me] to have. They don’t just brush it off when I tell them I have been struggling. They let me know they’ll always be there for me.”
He developed a sense of family with his fellow cohort members, as well as the Priebes. In the few years King has known everyone, they have left a lasting impact on him. When King first came to Cultivate, he struggled with being open to learning from someone else’s perspective. He grew to realize that people did care about him and the decisions he made. He wants to show everyone who had helped him that the love they showed him wasn’t for nothing.
The biggest lesson King says he learned, though, was to not compare his life to someone else’s. Nobody will completely understand another person’s life story because they can only explain it to a certain extent. You can’t go around judging people and making assumptions because as King puts it, “people change like the seasons.”
Sitting across from him at the table, I asked a rather broad question, “Where would you be without Cultivate?”
“Without Cultivate, my journey would be a lot more lonely and a lot harder,” King says after pondering the question while his eyes glance around the shop. “It would have been less bright, and I honestly don’t know where I’d be now. There are times when I’ve had no one, but since God led me to Cultivate I know I have everyone here to support me.”
King is now working to start his new adventure, The Go To Spot. After taking some time off from Cultivate, he rejoined the shop for their brand-new entrepreneurship cohort. With the newly developed skills he has learned, King began making a model for his dream business. He wants The Go To Spot to be an all-in-one barber shop, music studio, tattoo parlor and cosmetology salon. He hopes to have booths for people to sell their own creations in a classic pop-up shop fashion.
“It’s a big vision,” says King, chuckling with a bright smile stretching across his face. “It will be a fun, positive and loving spot where everyone can go. I want people to be able to bring their own ideas to the table and make money doing what they love. It’s a big vision, but I know it’s gonna be possible.”
Just like the Priebes, King knows he has to take it one small step at a time.
Cultivate Coffee is located at 505 W. Dunlap Ave., Suite E, Phoenix, AZ 85021.
Learn more at www.cultivatecoffee.org.
Photos courtesy Cultivate Coffee
