奥普拉在2013哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

　　Oh my goodness! I'm at Harvard! Wow! To PresidentFaust, my fellow honorands, Carl that was sobeautiful, thank you so much, and JamesRothenberg, Stephanie Wilson, Harvard faculty with aspecial bow to my friend Dr. Henry Lewis Gates.

　　All of you alumni with a special bow to the class of'88, your hundred fifteen million dollars.

　　And to you, members of the Harvard class of 2013! Hello!

　　I thank you for allowing me to be a part of the conclusion of this chapter of your lives and thecommencement of your next chapter. To say that I'm honored doesn't even begin toquantify the depth of gratitude that really accompanies an honorary doctorate from Harvard.Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge. And Ican tell you that I consider today as I sat on the stage this morning getting teary for you alland then teary for myself, I consider today a defining milestone in a very long and a blessedjourney. My one hope today is that I can be a source of some inspiration. I'm going toaddress my remarks to anybody who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwedby life, this is a speech for the quad.

　　Actually I was so honored I wanted to do something really special for you. I wanted to be ableto have you look under your seats and there would be free master and doctor degrees but Isee you got that covered already. I will be honest with you. I felt a lot of pressure over thepast few weeks to come up with something that I could share with you that you hadn't heardbefore because after all you all went to Harvard, I did not. But then I realized that you don'thave to necessarily go to Harvard to have a driven obsessive Type A personality. But it helps.And while I may not have graduated from here I admit that my personality is about as Harvardas they come. You know my television career began unexpectedly. As you heard this morning Iwas in the Miss Fire Prevention contest. That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville,Tennessee and you had the requirement of having to have red hair in order to win up until theyear that I entered. So they were doing the question and answer period because I knew Iwasn't going to win under the swimsuit competition. So during the question and answerperiod the question came "Why, young lady, what would you like to be when you grow up?"And by the time they got to me all the good answers were gone. So I had seen Barbara Walterson the Today Show that morning so I answered "I would like to be a journalist. I would like totell other people's stories in a way that makes a difference in their lives and the world." And asthose words were coming out of my mouth I went whoa! This is pretty good! I would like to bea journalist. I want to make a difference. Well I was on television by the time I was 19 years old.And in 1986 I launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed atfirst. I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising thebar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew. Sound familiar to anybodyhere? Eventually we did make it to the top and we stayed there for 25 years.

　　The Oprah Winfrey Show was number one in our time slot for 21 years and I have to tell you Ibecame pretty comfortable with that level of success. But a few years ago I decided as you willat some point, that it was time to recalculate, find new territory, break new ground. So I endedthe show and launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. The initials just worked out for me.So one year later after launching OWN nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my newventure was a flop. Not just a flop but a big bold flop they call it. I can still remember the dayI opened up USA Today and read the headline "Oprah, not quite standing on her OWN." I meanreally, USA Today? Now that's the nice newspaper! It really was this time last year the worstperiod in my professional life. I was stressed and I was frustrated and quite frankly I wasactually I was embarrassed. It was right around that time that President Faust called andasked me to speak here and I thought you want me to speak to Harvard graduates? Whatcould I possibly say to Harvard graduates, some of the most successful graduates in the worldin the very moment when I had stopped succeeding? So I got off the phone with PresidentFaust and I went to the shower. It was either that or a bag of Oreos. So I chose the shower.And I was in the shower a long time and as I was in the shower the words of an old hymn cameto me. You may not know it. It's "By and by, when the morning comes." And I started thinkingabout when the morning might come because at the time I thought I was stuck in a hole. Andthe words came to me "Trouble don't last always" from that hymn, "this too shall pass." And Ithought as I got out of the shower I am going to turn this thing around and I will be better forit. And when I do, I'm going to go to Harvard and I'm going to speak the truth of it! So I'mhere today to tell you I have turned that network around!

　　And it was all because I wanted to do it by the time I got to speak to you all so thank you somuch. You don't know what motivation you were for me, thank you. I'm even prouder to sharea fundamental truth that you might not have learned even as graduates of Harvard unless youstudied the ancient Greek hero with Professor Nagy. Professor Nagy as we were coming in thismorning said "Please Ms. Winfrey, walk decisively."