farewell, my friend.

a wise woman once said, "devote today to something so daring even you can't believe you're doing it." now, i don't know about "daring," but i'll be doing something later on today that i can't believe i'm doing- watching this woman's farewell show.

oh oprah, how do i begin to convey my feelings for you to my blog readers?

i'm not exactly sure when or where this obsession started... but the farthest i can trace it back to is early middle school. i remember coming home from school almost every day and watching the oprah winfrey show with my mom- it became our bonding hour. and in 8th grade english class, we had to write a professional letter to a company. i wrote one to harpo asking for tickets to the show for my teacher and myself. (although we never heard a response, i got an A). then freshman year, leah and i were absolutely thrilled to meet Stedman Graham when he came to speak at bonanza. i will never regret ditching class for him. i still smile when i think about the fact that i've hugged someone Oprah has hugged.

it was very exciting. even more exciting than the night leah called me and told me that her mom was staying at the same hotel as oprah in hawaii. oh what i would have given to fly there and stalk her down. then sophomore year came around, and i was assigned an 8 page biography on anyone i wanted. you guessed it: oprah winfrey. as if i didn't admire her enough before, writing the biography changed everything. i learned specific details about her humble beginnings and childhood that i had never heard. i learned about charities and scholarships and service projects that she put on without even announcing on the show. she gives so much more than we know. she truly is inspirational. i wrote all of this in my paper, and then emailed it to oprah. even after my multiple letters/emails to her, i never made it on the show. so this is the closest i've gotten to her:

a wax figure. i guess it will have to do. junior year reminds me of watching oprah with friends. one of my favorite episodes is oprah & gayle's road trip. the fab five and i had a party to watch the road trip episodes together! oprah and gayle are so funny, we were all laughing the whole time. and when we found out oprah and gayle had matching pink crystal pinky rings, leah and i bought ourselves some matching pink crystal pinky rings. leah is my gayle. year after year, we watched her favorite things episode and envied every person in the audience. senior year, oprah was a vital part of my daily routine. with most of my friends gone for college, who better to turn to than opie? (that's her childhood nickname, incase you were wondering). then i moved to college, and realized that my life was lacking without oprah due to my tv-less dorm room. i ripped out a picture from her magazine and thumb tacked it to the wall on my desk. the picture was of her at the very beginning of her career. i kept it there all year to remind me that i can do anything i set my mind to. it made me work harder. i know this is dumb and cliche and weird, but in a way i feel like i grew up with her. yes i know she is 37 years older than i am. but i remember her 50th birthday celebration, and she inspired my ideas for girls camp as youth camp director. i wrote poems about her in high school, and she introduced me to dr. oz. we laughed together, we cried together. she shared her "ah-ha moments" and i read the O magazine monthly. i was there when she found out she had a half-sister! she may not know it, but i say we have a pretty solid bond. some of our favorite things are josh groban, the color green, ipads, chicago pizza, chips, playing scrabble, and ugg boots.

i can't believe today marks the day of her last show. no doubt this will be a day i remember for the rest of my life. everyone remembers significant days like this. "where were you when the berlin wall fell?" "where were you when you heard the news about 9-11?" "...when princess diana died?" today can just be added to the list. sometimes i hope that an "OWN network 2" will come out and just be reruns and reruns of oprah shows. did you know she has recorded over 5,000 episodes? they should be compiling them into a multi-disc collection like they did for the 20th anniversary. and when they do, i'll be first in line to get it. but until then, i say farewell to oprah. it's been a great 20 years. don't laugh at me when i bawl my eyes out watching the final episode later on today.

love you long time.

more lovin:

http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/05/what-she-has-meant-to-me.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/business/media/23oprah.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto