Oprah Show Finale Part 1

The Oprah  Show Finale Part 1, May 25, 2011

If you know me, you know I’m a serious Oprah admirer. I decided to transcribe The Oprah Show Finale, or as she puts it, her love letter to her viewers, because as someone struggling with my “life’s purpose” I found it to be very, inspiring, comforting, and insightful. I had so many aha moments listening to her speak and so I wanted to have a permanent record of it for myself, that I can always refer back to in my time of need and because when I learn or find something that helps me I pass it on so it can help someone else. So here it is for all of you, Oprah fan or otherwise.

“25 years, and I’m still saying thank you America, thank you so much. There are no words to match this moment. Every word I’ve ever spoken from this stage, of the Oprah Show for four-thousand, five-hundred, and now sixty-one days of my life is what this moment is all about. Yesterday, you heard the legendary Aretha Franklin sing what has really been a constant, in the theme song of my life, Amazing Grace, and how truly amazing it is, this journey that you and I have shared together. I mean really people, (laughter) when I arrived in Chicago from Baltimore where I co-hosted my first talk show with Richard Sher, who’s here today. Richard? (Richard waves in the audience. Audience Applause) I was uh (Applause) I was…I was just happy to get the job. And as you can see from uh my first day on AM Chicago at WLS,

(clip of first day at AM Chicago)

 I had no publicist, no publicist advising me, no stylist. There was no hair and make-up team. Just a jerry curl and a bad fur coat.  When I came here I was about to turn 30-years-old. I didn’t have a vision for uh, or a lot of great expectations. Stedman talked about vision all the time but, (Cut to Stedman in the audience) I didn’t have one, honey, when I came here. I just wanted to do a good job, and cause no harm. I was soo happy to get the job, I forgot to ask Dennis Swanson who hired me, do y’all have an audience? Will there be an audience because in Baltimore uh, we had an audience. It was just about 24 people, so I came here expecting that I’d have a t least the same. That first day was a shock to me: there was no audience!

(CLIP of the first show)

There I am in uh, my best uh Anne Klein velour outfit. (Audience laughs) Yeah. My first guests were a few Chicago football players, New Years Day 1984. There we are trying to make chili with no stove, no heat, and no you. I needed people. I needed to have you to gage how things were going during the show, if you were responding, if you were laughing, if you were tracking with me. So after the first show we put some folding chairs uh, in the audience. We brought in the staff, (CLIP)  look-a-there, pitiful. Secretaries, anybody we could find in the building and filled in the rest with people off the street that we bribed with donuts and coffee. We’d say “Come in. you want to get warm?” Well from day one Chicago, you took me in,-into your living rooms, into your kitchens and your dens-and you spread the word to your friends. I heard you sayin “Have y’all you seen that black girl on TV named Oprah?” The first week we went National I remember I got a letter from a woman named Carrie in Ann Arbor Michigan. And Carrie said “Oprah watching you be yourself makes me want to be more of myself.”  That was and still remains one of the nicest things I ever heard. What Carrie felt is what I wanted for every, single, one of you. I wanted to encourage you to be more of yourself, just as you all encouraged me and you cheered me on and occasionally complained about my outfits,

(CLIP OF Oprah in bad outfits)

 my big hair,

(clip of Oprah’s big hair)

Whoa! and earrings the size of napkins.

(CLIP OF OPRAH’s Big earrings)

 I now see you had every reason to but at the time you couldn’t tell me nothin. I thought I was stylin pretty cute. But soon after I started the show something shifted for me. It really did. I started this show as a job and was very happy to get the job but it was not long before I understood there was something else going on here, more than just job satisfaction. Something in me, connected with each of you, in a way that allowed me to see myself in you, and you in me. I listened and grew and I know you grew along with me. Sometimes I was the teacher, and more often you taught me. It is no coincidence that I always wanted to be a teacher, and I ended up in the world’s biggest classroom, and this my friends will be our last class from this stage. So today there will be no guests; there will be no makeovers, no surprises-really no surprises. (Surprise overload from United Center) You will not be getting a car or a tree. This last hour is really about me saying thank you. It is my love letter to you. I want to leave you all with the lessons that have been the anchor for my life and the ones I hold most precious. Every day that I stood here I knew that this was exactly where I was supposed to be. And there was many a day, Stedman can tell you, like so many of you, I came to work bone tired, and I often joked with my make-up team “My face is still in Cleveland y’all. Can you get it to Chicago by 9 o’clock?” But I showed up because I knew that you were waiting. You were waiting for whatever we had to offer and that is why I never missed a day in 25 years, because you were here. (Applause) And because, and because, this is what I was called to do. What I know for sure from this experience with you is that we are all called. Everybody has a calling  and your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it. Every time we have seen a person on this stage who is a success in their life, they spoke of the joy, they spoke of the “juice,” that they received from doing what they believed they were meant to be doing. We saw it in volunteers who rocked abandoned baby’s in Atlanta. We saw it with pie ladies, those lovely pie ladies from Cape Cod making those delicious pot pies. And we saw it even with prisoners, training puppies behind bars to be adopted by our wounded soldiers. Many of those inmates, for the first time, got to experience what it meant to love and be loved and it took a dog to do it. We saw it every time Tina Turner, Celine, Bocelli, or Lady Gaga, lit up the stage with their passion. Because that is what a calling is. It lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, and that is what I want for all of you. And hope that you will take from the show to live from the heart of yourself. You have to make a living, I understand that, but you also have to know what sparks the light in you, so that you in your own way can illuminate the world. You know when I started, not even I imagined that this the show would have the depth and the reach that you all have given it. It has been a privilege for me to speak to you here, in this studio, in this country, and in a hundred and fifty countries around the world. On this platform that is the Oprah Winfrey Show, you let me into your homes to talk to you every day. This is what you allowed me to do and I thank you for that. But what I want you to know as this show ends each one of you has your own platform. Do not let the trappings here fool you. Mine is a stage in a studio. Yours is wherever you are, with your own reach, however small, or however large, that reach is, maybe it’s 20 people, maybe it’s 30 people, 40 people, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your classmates, your classroom, your co-workers. Wherever you are that is your platform, your stage, your circle of influence. That is your talk show, and that is where your power lies. In every way, in every day, you are showing people exactly who you are. You are letting your light speak for you. And when you do that you will receive in direct proportion to how you give, in whatever platform you have. Of course the circumstances are all different for all of us, but the power, I know, is the same. You can help somebody, you can listen, you can forgive, you can heal. You have the power to change somebody’s life. Look around and you’ll see. You may not have to look any further than your own family, or maybe even your own self. The power is the same. Everybody has a calling. Mine aligned with my profession, my job, but not everybody gets paid for it, but everybody gets called.  It may be your skill at listening, your talent for nurturing and mothering. Do not get it confused. It does not have to be some high falutin something or something that makes you famous; we’re all confused about fame versus service in this country. One of my favorite stories is Marcia Kilgore who founded the successful Bliss spa. She was here years ago and, and, I remember going to her spa and getting a beautiful facial from her, so great. And I stood up on the table and said “This is the best facial I ever had” and she said “That’s because extractions, popping zits, are my passion.” My great wish for all of you who have allowed me to honor my calling through this show is that you carry whatever you’re supposed to be doing , carry that forward and don’t waste any more time. Start embracing the life that is calling you and use your life to serve the world.