Paul Christie makes it a point to 'be real'. As a recovering drug addict, he dedicates his life to telling his very real, and very moving, story to high school and elementary school students across Ontario.

On Nov. 7, Christie's fall/winter Be Real tour made a stop at Norman Johnston Alternate School in Blackburn Hamlet, where students got a chance to hear the no-holds-barred account of Christie's descent into drug use, and his inspirational recovery.

At the age of 17, the Fort Erie native was arrested on charges of arson related to an incident 2 years earlier - he and a group of friends had broken into some houses looking for liquor, and had started a fire with the candles and matched they used. Christie was already using heroin and cocaine by the time he was imprisoned, and the years that followed would prove to be a downward spiral of drug use, jail time, violence and depression lasting over 20 years. After having previously failed at a suicide attempt by hanging, Christie was in the midst of a second attempt in 1999 when instead, something told him to put it off until the next day. When he awoke, he couldn't even recognize himself in the mirror. He was a changed man, and he has been clean ever since.

[continues 295 words]