Oprah gives Stanford University commencement address
Oprah Winfrey delivered the commencement speech to Stanford University graduates, giving away free books to the 4,700 students. She had hoped to give them cars, but said she couldn’t quite pull it off.
She had, as commencement speakers do, some advice for the students.
“When you are doing the work you are meant to do, it feels right,” she said, as the Class of 2008 snapped photographs with their cell phones and tossed beach balls to each other in the warm morning sun. “Feelings are really your GPS system for life. Check your ego at the door and check your gut instead.
“Every wrong decision was the result of me not listening to my voice. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.”
At the first commencement ceremony to be held in the new Stanford Stadium, Winfrey spoke about the need to be open to life’s numerous lessons – and the importance of feelings, learning from failure and finding happiness.
In a speech that was both personal and humorous, she spoke about her early days as a television news anchor in Baltimore. It was rough: Her boss didn’t think anyone would remember the name Oprah and wanted her to change her name to Susie. He also sent her to a salon because he didn’t like the way she looked.
“Do I look like a Susie to you?” she said to laughter.
She also talked about her own experience opening a school in South Africa.
She spoke about how she built a school for girls in South Africa and spent time and energy picking out sheets and pillows, only to learn later that one of the dorm matrons had been accused of sexual abuse.
“I had been paying attention to all of the wrong things,” Winfrey said. “I built a school from the outside in, instead of from the inside out.”
I’m impressed that Oprah even talked about her school’s issues, because she didn’t really need to bring it up at all.
Oprah’s own goddaughter, Kirby Bumpus, graduated on the day. Oprah told the students that she hadn’t been allowed to visit while her best friend Gale King’s daughter was a student for fear of embarrassing her.
Oprah got good reviews for her speech, with students saying that she spoke from her heart.
The two books Oprah gave away were Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” and Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”.
Note by Celebitchy: Here’s a video of Oprah’s commencement speech, via The Huffington Post. Header image is from Stanford.edu, where you can also read a transcript of the speech.
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