This is a great story and a reminder not to stereotype and pigeonhole people, It's worth reading to understand one person's story and his continuing fight to continue on the positive direction he fought so hard to enter.
The homeless drug addict who became a professor
Jesse Thistle spent more than a decade on the streets and in jail. But despite this he has managed to become an expert on the culture of his Indigenous Canadian ancestors - with the help of his mother, from whom he was separated as a young child.
...
At school Jesse was always fighting, was held back because of his poor grades, and never learned how to read or do maths properly. Then he joined a gang in high school and really started getting into trouble.
"We were drinking, partying, going to raves and using drugs, and that soon became my identity," Jesse says. "I would lose myself on MDMA, ketamine and crystal meth for three, four and five days in a row."
And then his grandparents kicked him out.
...
"I thought, 'Why don't I do a crime and go to jail? I'll be safe in there, have a place to rest, access to food and medication.'"
So he held up a convenience store and helped himself to the takings - but instead of waiting to be arrested, as he'd planned, he jumped into a large rubbish bin at the back of the shop and hid.
"I was in the garbage bin, thinking, 'I can't even rob a store properly,'" Jesse says.
He later discovered he'd taken less than $40 (Canadian dollars), and after a few weeks of drug-aggravated paranoia - imagining that he was about to be arrested at any minute - he turned himself in.
"I did it," he told the police, "I'm the guy who robbed the store. Now lock me up and throw away the key."
...
He still struggles with the legacy of his addictions.
"I still fantasise about using crack cocaine, it never goes away. I just have to learn to manage it," he says.
"I use a trick. I'll say, 'Yeah, I want a nice, big rock today, but you know what? I'll use tomorrow.' And then when tomorrow comes I'll say that again. I can handle this tomorrow-never-comes scenario - I've been doing it for 12 years - but infinity without the drug is too much to handle."
Meanwhile, the pain in his right foot, more than a decade after his fall, reminds him every day that he's lucky to be alive.
...
The homeless drug addict who became a professor
Jesse Thistle spent more than a decade on the streets and in jail. But despite this he has managed to become an expert on the culture of his Indigenous Canadian ancestors - with the help of his mother, from whom he was separated as a young child.
...
At school Jesse was always fighting, was held back because of his poor grades, and never learned how to read or do maths properly. Then he joined a gang in high school and really started getting into trouble.
"We were drinking, partying, going to raves and using drugs, and that soon became my identity," Jesse says. "I would lose myself on MDMA, ketamine and crystal meth for three, four and five days in a row."
And then his grandparents kicked him out.
...
"I thought, 'Why don't I do a crime and go to jail? I'll be safe in there, have a place to rest, access to food and medication.'"
So he held up a convenience store and helped himself to the takings - but instead of waiting to be arrested, as he'd planned, he jumped into a large rubbish bin at the back of the shop and hid.
"I was in the garbage bin, thinking, 'I can't even rob a store properly,'" Jesse says.
He later discovered he'd taken less than $40 (Canadian dollars), and after a few weeks of drug-aggravated paranoia - imagining that he was about to be arrested at any minute - he turned himself in.
"I did it," he told the police, "I'm the guy who robbed the store. Now lock me up and throw away the key."
...
He still struggles with the legacy of his addictions.
"I still fantasise about using crack cocaine, it never goes away. I just have to learn to manage it," he says.
"I use a trick. I'll say, 'Yeah, I want a nice, big rock today, but you know what? I'll use tomorrow.' And then when tomorrow comes I'll say that again. I can handle this tomorrow-never-comes scenario - I've been doing it for 12 years - but infinity without the drug is too much to handle."
Meanwhile, the pain in his right foot, more than a decade after his fall, reminds him every day that he's lucky to be alive.
...