And When I Met Oprah Winfrey

Three years ago a mentor of mine suggested I meet Oprah Winfrey before I get killed, I smiled. A year later, another good friend recommended the very same thing but when the same suggestion came the third time recently I knew something seriously important lay behind this.

Although it was still hard for me to understand the point behind a celebrity meeting a struggling village girl. With my naive knowledge about world's famous people, I only knew that this woman had power and success at her feet. The distance between her and myself is enormous, with her fame and personality she has much important things to do then speak to me, and about what?

But then I met Oprah this past April 2013. Luck brought us together as speakers in the same conference in New York. There I was, a young little girl with layers of traditional clothing, while Oprah a strong woman whom I had seen on TV now standing right there in front of me in elegant expensive cloths.

As I spoke to her in an embarrassing trembling voice, my habit forced me to gaze into her eyes and there I saw something that eased me... something that took away the anxiety within me and made the air in the room much lighter. I saw Authenticity.Oprah Winfrey was not a celebrity. She was one true woman and all that she had become was because she chose to stay her true self and prove to everyone that a young girl from Mississippi can shake the world.

At that moment I slowly looked around us, people surrounded us with camera's, hopes and smiles. Through their eyes I saw, "The Oprah Winfrey", the worlds most known woman and  "An Ambitious Girl" from the mountains, I didn't see much difference between us.

In the end when she hugged me, I realized I didn't have to find reasons for why I should meet her. I only knew one thing very clearly: The future and past were facing each other right at that time, my heart strongly gestured a future where I would stand just like that as a strong woman leader hugging a young girl who has struggled, and right there in that moment of connection I would also whisper in her ear: "I am proud of you my dear". 

Thank you Oprah <3 p="">