"There are no words to match this moment."
So began the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. After 25 years and 4,561 episodes, Winfrey bid farewell to her daytime talk show this afternoon. While there may not have been words to "match this moment," the hour was filled with other words: funny ones, sad ones, inspiring ones, and poignant ones.
"It is no coincidence that I always wanted to be a teacher. I ended up with the greatest classroom in the world. And this, my friends, will be our last class for this stage," she said. How was the class? Here's a recap, in quotes:
The Funny:
Winfrey recalled her first job on AM Chicago with no publicist and no stylist. All she had was "just a Jheri curl and a bad fur coat" and "earrings the size of napkins."
Talking about her childhood, Winfrey detailed her birth. Her parents were under the tree in Mississippi, she said, "and voila! Out pops me!"
"Don't wait for someone else to complete you. 'Jerry Maguire' was just a movie."
While celebrating with her audience as the credits rolled, Winfrey got extra excited when she saw one of her favorite people: Her dog. ""Sadie, we did it! We did it Sadie, we did it!"
The Wacky:
"Live from the heart of yourself"
"Your life is speaking to you. What does it say?"
"Nobody but you is responsible for your life. You are responsible for your life. What is your life? What is all life? What is every flower, every rock, every tree? Energy. And you're responsible for the energy you create for yourself, and you're responsible for the energy that you bring to others."
The Gracious:
"From Day 1, Chicago, you took me in... and you told your friends....I heard you say, 'Have y'all seen that black girl on TV named Oprah?'"
"You all have been a safe harbor for me for 25 years. What I hope is that you will be a safe harbor for someone else."
"To be embraced by all of you, it's one of the greatest honors a human being can have."
"Every day that I stood here I knew that this was exactly where I was meant to be."
"From you whose names I will never know, I learned what love is. And this show have been the great love of my life."
The Inspiring:
"There's a difference between thinking you deserve to be happy and knowing that you are worthy of being happy. Your being alive makes worthiness your birthright. You alone are enough."
Everyone has a platform, Winfrey said. "Mine is a stage in a studio. Yours is wherever you are, with your own reach."
"I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common -- they all wanted validation. ... They want to know, do you hear me? Do you see me? Does what I say mean anything to you?"
"This is what I was called to do...Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to find it."
Talking about how she got to where she is, Winfrey credited God. Which God? "I'm talking about the same one you're talking about. The Alpha and Omega. The Omniscience, the Omnipresent, the Ultimate Consciousness, the Source, the Force, the All of Everything There Is, the one and only G-O-D."
"You also have to know what sparks the light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world. You have the power to change somebody's life."
The Ugly Cry:
It's a fair bet that a large majority of viewers tuned in to the Oprah finale to cry. Not just cry, sob. Two segments of the show were especially emotional. Here are the monologues, with a few cuts.
Recalling how far she's come:
"But I'm truly amazed that I, who started out in rural Mississippi in 1954, when the vision for a black girl was limited to being either a maid or a teacher in a segregated school, could end up here. It is no coincidence that a lonely little girl [and here Oprah tears up] who felt not a lot of love, even though my parents and grandparents did the best they could -- it is no coincidence that I grew up to feel genuine kindness, affection, validation and trust from millions of you all over the world. From you whose names I will never know, I learned what love is. You and this show have been the great love of my life."
Signing off:
"Well, I say, all sweet, no bitter. And here's why. Many of us have been together for 25 years. We have hooted and hollered together, had our a-ha moments, we ugly-cried together and we did our gratitude journals. So I thank you all for your support and your trust in me. I thank you for sharing this yellow brick road of blessings. ...I thank you for being as much of a sweet inspiration for me as I've tried to be for you. I won't say goodbye. I'll just say, until we meet again. To God be the glory."
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