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RANDY PERDUE<br />
went on to say that the state is always hungry<br />
for leaders.<br />
On the 16th of August, I began my training at<br />
the prison. I didn’t have the red ruby slippers<br />
to click like Dorothy did on The Wizard of Oz.<br />
I did realize that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. I<br />
guess I can relate my feelings to how Rip Van<br />
Winkle must have felt when he woke from his<br />
long-extended sleep. It was truly a cultural<br />
shock. I didn’t have any idea how much a<br />
negative environment would physically affect<br />
me. Most experts agree that drastic changes in<br />
anyone’s environment have negative<br />
biochemical consequences.<br />
I used to brag about the fact that I never got<br />
sick; no colds, no headaches, no illnesses<br />
whatsoever for over seven years. I tell this story<br />
to audiences to illustrate how an environment<br />
can have a profound effect on you mentally,<br />
physically, and spiritually. From late 1989 to the<br />
fall of 1997, the only thing that affected me was<br />
a back injury. In 1989, while stationed in<br />
Okinawa, Japan, I slipped the lowest disc in my<br />
back because I was showing off in front of two<br />
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