Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 Source: Expositor, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2011 Sun Media Contact: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx Website: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1130 Author: Sabrina Burrell, The Expositor ADDICT HELPS STUDENTS 'GET REAL' Senior students at Assumption College got a wakeup call Thursday morning. It came from motivational speaker Paul Christie, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who "turned his life around" in 1999 and now travels across Ontario delivering his message at schools. His "Get Real" presentation detailed a struggle with addiction that started in Grade 8 and e next 30 years of his life, including jail time and attempted suicide. "His stories are real," said Assumption principal John Burroughs. "It's his life. He does not preach to the kids. He basically says, 'This is what happened to me, so you have a choice to make.'" Burroughs first heard Christie speak four years ago when he was principal at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Simcoe. He said was so impressed that he thought Assumption students could benefit from Christie's message. Burroughs said that he sees students being exposed to recreational drugs. He hopes that Christie's message encourages students to make informed lifestyle choices. "There are some people in our society who are trying to capitalize financially on our kids by selling them this stuff." Christie launched right into his presentation, cautioning students that he wasn't glorifying the use of drugs and that his talk might get graphic. "Some principals want me to do a presentation, but ask me to tone it down a little bit," Christie said. "But you can't. Its real life and you can't tone it down." Christie's journey started when he smoked marijuana in Grade 8. His grades dropping and he failed. When he entered high school, he began experimenting with alcohol, and soon became an alcoholic. He would blackout, he told the students, and not remember what happened. He told the students about a time in Grade 9, just before Christmas, when he attended a party with friends and went on to break into nearby houses. He woke up the next morning at home, with no recollection of the events from the night before. He didn't remember that he and his friends had started a fire in two of the empty homes and both had burned to the ground. Police waited until Christie turned 16 to arrest him on two counts of arson and two counts of breaking and entering. He was sentenced to 20 months in a psychiatric hospital, but was transferred after two weeks to the Guelph Correctional Centre. Before he was arrested, he had been using cocaine and heroin, too. He would bring syringes to school and shoot up in the bathrooms. While he was in jail, he would use the money given him by family members to buy more drugs. Once released, he only spiral downwards, turning to armed robbery to feed his growing addiction. He was arrested one night in Niagara Falls for armed robbery of a strip club but escaped from jail by tricking the police officers. He told the students about how he bit a hole through his tongue and pretended to be seriously ill, so police would take him to the hospital. Once there, he feigned being unconscious until they transferred him to a hospital in Buffalo, N.Y. He then waited for doctors to release him, since the Canadian police were out of their jurisdiction. He was given $3,000 from his dad and he took a bus to California and lived there for almost 20 years, using any kind of drug he could get his hands on: cocaine, crystal meth, crack, heroin. The story he tells the students is almost unbelievable: - -He was beaten and robbed in California and left with nothing more than the clothes on his back and the Bible he now carries in his pocket. - -He described the Christmas he thought would be his last, and the lengths he went to make it the best for his young son before trying to hang himself. - -He used the veins in his neck and forehead to shoot up when the veins in his arms collapsed. - -He saw people try to trade their children for crack. - -And he once traded his girlfriend for hit of crack. But Christie has the scars to prove his stories true. He bares his entire life in the hopes that he can make a difference in people's lives. "I'm disgusted with myself," he told students. "I am ashamed of my past, but there's nothing I can do about it, but possibly save one of you here today. And if that happens, I've done my job. " Christie's decision to get clean stemmed from the birth of his son, Jesse, and his desire to be a better father. He said it wasn't easy. But now he enjoys a close relationship with Jesse, who is 16. He credited a conversation with Jesse as the reason he began speaking to students. "My son asked me, 'Dad what do I do if someone offers me drugs '. And it was like a light just went on, and I said ..., 'You say you're not going to waste your life on drugs. ' And then I just ended up going to one school, and the rest came on board." Students said they came away from Christie's presentation informed. "It was good to get a real experience," said student Dan Gallo. "We watch a lot of TV shows, like Intervention, but once you actually see it in real life, it really opens your eyes." Thailer Haines, another student, agreed. "It was really amazing that we were able to see someone, who actually lived through that, tell us, 'This is how the real life is,'" Haines said. "Don't mess it up like [Christie] did. But he cleaned it up, so that's good." A second presentation was given to students in Grades 9 and 10 on the twin themes of bullying and substance abuse. Christie said he has received more than 7,000 e-mails over the last six years from students and parents thanking him for sharing his story. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.