Christine’s Story of Hope: Grateful for Every Moment
My name is Christine, I’ve been clean and sober for three years, and I bought The Australian Bakery on the square on August 1st. I grew up working in my dad’s restaurant, so food service is something I’ve always been comfortable with and thrived in. So, when I got to The Extension and had to look for a full-time job, it just made sense to work in a restaurant- especially one I could walk to.
Working at The Australian Bakery became my recovery job, and I made decent money. I decided to stay even after I transitioned out of The Extension, and I progressed. It worked with my schedule, my kids could be there- I gained custody of them after completing the program, and their school was just across the street, so I could pick them up and they could come to work with me. So, everything flowed and made sense, and when Mark approached me and my fiancé, we said “why not?”
I’ve seen Christine grow immensely in the time she’s been at the Australian Bakery. You could always see she had a good upbringing & showed a commitment to change her lifestyle around. I have seen the good side of her, and her constant reinforcement on a day-to-day basis has helped her grow exponentially.
With that commitment to herself, Mark approached her to sell his share of the business, with her past knowledge of the food industry & looking forward to settling down, which Christine jumped at the wonderful opportunity that was presented to her. I wish her all the best in the business world. -Nevelle Steel, founder of The Australian Bakery
Let’s back up though. See, when my mother passed away in 2020, my world shattered. My heroin addiction spiraled, and it truly almost killed me. One night, I ended up at her house and everything came crashing down. The memory is hazy because of how high I was, but I had dislocated my foot, my car disappeared, and my brother came over. He must’ve called an ambulance because I refused to go to the hospital. While I was in the hospital, my brother called my probation officer, and I failed the drug test he gave me.
I was extremely upset with myself. I failed my test and served 2 months in jail. I felt like a little girl inside a 33-year-old’s body. I didn’t know how to do anything. I didn’t know how to save money. I didn’t know how to grow up or how to manage my emotions. After I was released from jail, I came to The Extension, and that was the first time I started to grow up.
I learned how to save and budget money, I learned about relapse prevention, and my favorite class was anger management. I learned that anger is a secondary emotion that often covers up the real emotion underneath, whether it’s sadness, grief, or fear. I learned that when people are angry at you, they aren’t really mad at you, they’re sad or scared about something else and they don’t know where to put their emotion, so it comes out on you. The same is true for when you are mad at someone else. I use this knowledge every single day. Whether it’s with my kids or dealing with customers in the bakery.
I’m so grateful to be at a point in my life where I can give back to the program that saved my life. I love to go back, and I’d do anything for the women. And in my position today I get to use this life-saving knowledge to run my business. I get to use what I learned in my finance and anger management classes in my day-to-day life. I don’t judge anyone for anything anymore because you have no idea what they might be going through. I’ve learned that when you’re down, you can’t give up. You just have to live one day at a time. There was a time when I didn’t have my kids, I didn’t have any material belongings, and I didn’t think it would get any better for me. But The Extension taught me that life is good. I learned that there’s so much more beauty in life than I ever imagined- and I deserved it. I deserve to live a good life. If you persevere and are willing to do what it takes, you never know how beautiful your life will turn out.
My oldest son is 18, and he still knows how to get to the dope houses downtown because I used to take him there with me. These days I find joy everywhere, even in mundane moments. Now that I have my kids back, I get to share the things I love with my daughter. We both love cats, and she’s been training our cat to go outside on a leash. So there’s joy in the moment that I get to come home to my daughter and my fiancé’s son playing outside in their Halloween pajamas with the cat on a leash. The ability to spend time with my family and my kids is something I’ll never take for granted. Now I have a relationship with my brother and my Dad again; we just went up to Charleston, South Carolina to visit my Dad, and that’s where me and my fiancé are getting married soon.
That’s what I’m most grateful for-my family. I don’t have to worry about them knowing where the dope houses are anymore, I don’t have to worry about finding money and chasing my next job to scrape by providing for them. My time at The Extension helped me learn how to live in the moment, and I want to spend as many moments as I can with them.
