Page 40 - 4-22-17 RP FINAL Flipbook pdf

RANDY PERDUE

went on to say that the state is always hungry
for leaders.

On the 16th of August, I began my training at
the prison. I didn’t have the red ruby slippers
to click like Dorothy did on The Wizard of Oz.
I did realize that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. I
guess I can relate my feelings to how Rip Van
Winkle must have felt when he woke from his

long-extended sleep. It was truly a cultural
shock. I didn’t have any idea how much a
negative environment would physically affect
me. Most experts agree that drastic changes in
anyone’s environment have negative
biochemical consequences.

I used to brag about the fact that I never got
sick; no colds, no headaches, no illnesses
whatsoever for over seven years. I tell this story
to audiences to illustrate how an environment
can have a profound effect on you mentally,
physically, and spiritually. From late 1989 to the

fall of 1997, the only thing that affected me was
a back injury. In 1989, while stationed in
Okinawa, Japan, I slipped the lowest disc in my
back because I was showing off in front of two

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