Lewis Conway, Jr

You have experienced or you are experiencing the things that I have and you are trying to work your way through it. I couldn't learn how to get through prison from someone that hadn't been to prison. I couldn't learn how to successfully complete parole if I didn't talk to or listen to someone that had successfully completed parole. The books that I read while incarcerated gave me life and knowledge, but didn't give me practical tools. Something that would give me a skill set to deal with life in prison and life after prison. I found it necessary to talk to people who had been to prison more than once, in order to figure out what not do. I had to reverse engineer my success by talking to people who had been through something I didn't want to go through. For you, I am giving you the information from the angle of doing what you want to do. I can’t make the decisions for you that will determine your experiences, but I can give you the information that will helped me make different choices and some tools that will helped me make better decisions.
The people that I encountered in prison became life long influences. I find myself constantly remembering the lessons or the knowledge that I acquired while incarcerated. Influences can be bad or good, depending on how you allow them to effect you. You must be careful and diligent about who you expose your mind to. Prison either turns you all the around 180 degrees or you do a 360 and come out the same way you went in. People, places and things have more control over your thinking than you realize and your thinking is what determines your actions. Therefore, if you aren't careful people, places and things will decisions for you. However, more than anything your thinking can determine the outcome of your actions. I have learned through wrong choices; that you must be diligent and careful about these three things: People, Places and Things.
Many of the decisions we made are direct results of our thoughts. As a matter of fact, the very first step in making a decision is thought. Allowing people, places and things to determine our thoughts takes away our power. We must use these three things to our benefit in every instance possible. Thoughts have power and this power is completely within your discretion and under your control. You have the ability to determine the amount of power that these thoughts have. The miracles happen when you allow yourself to take control of your thoughts. The magic happens when you allow people, places, and things to be your benefit and not allow them to take advantage of you. The only thing while in prison I had complete and utter control over was my mind, my thoughts, my actions and my reactions. Those belonged to me and could never be taken.
*Excerpt from the Book 'Change The Whether'