Profile Essay: Oprah Winfrey

Ciera Britton

Essay#2

Eng 015- Womack

September 19,2013

 

Profile Essay: Oprah Winfrey

 

In life there are people that succeed and there are some

that don’t. Those who succeed are usually perceived as heroes. We admire them,

we are inspired by them, and hope that one day we ourselves can become such

great influence to others and have the same big impact on people’s lives, as

they did. Well, at least, I do. The people who truly bring greatness to our

societies and one such person is my hero. Her name is recognizable to many:

Oprah Winfrey; and she has been my role model in numerous ways. Oprah Winfrey

is perhaps the most influential persona of the new century and she has every

reason to celebrate about it, since she has conquered the tops of popularity

without losing her humane side on the way. Who could even have imagined that a

girl born in poverty and having felt her tender childhood years been torn apart

from multiple sexual abuse, would have created a multi-winning award winning,

high-rated talk show performing live from the very heart of the U.S? Oprah is

by far the wealthiest African-American, that never forgets people’s misery

and never turns her head away from other people’s sorrow, and a woman with

power to even move mountains. I have heard so many things about her and such glorifying

words from people that have been around her that I had started to question

their validity. Could it be that she was THAT good? Well, all my queries ended

and every cloud disappeared when I met her in person. She is more than words

can say and definitely more than what I had heard of her. She was smiling,

friendly and polite and seemed to really care about her audience. You could

immediately feel as if you were with a friend or someone you knew for many

years. Judging from her accomplishments, awe is rather poor to describe my

feelings for her. I literally fainted when she hug me. NO. Just kidding. But

Oprah gave away some goods that day I made my appearance, 1,000 gift card that

you can use anywhere in America. All Smiles. Who would not love this Woman?

 

 

 

By age 19, she already had a talk show. She became a

manager to her own production company . What is worth mentioning, is the fact

that Oprah never stood still. She would always seek out for truths, spiritual

techniques and practices that could improve her inner self, alongside her outer

self. She enriched her shows with  topics, that she share  valuable

with people. It comes naturally, that every successful individual meets

criticism from those that see a black woman trying to prevail in world

dominated by white males.  Seeing life’s ugly face at such a young age as

she did, anything that would come her way would probably seem like an issue of

minor significance. Leaders, after all, are an entirely different paste of

human beings that seem to have seen the whole picture of life and care little

about any clouds darkening their background. I cannot even imagine how she must

have felt when she had no clothes to wear and used potato sacks to cover her

body, This was very emotional to me. While the other kids were teasing and

laughing at her. This incident alone could scar a small child. I have seen a

similar case with a child coming from a poor background that could not stand

and cope with peer pressure and committed numerous suicides to end their life.

It is never easy to deal with pain, either physical or emotional. Oprah managed

to pull her head out of the water, and used media to redirect her passion for

life and giving. Having gone through television, films, live shows, radio,

publishing and writing, and celebrity interviews, 32-year old Oprah was

included in the world’s millionaires’ list, only to earn a place in Forbes 400

at the age of 41, as the African American that had replaced Bill Cosby on the

word’s 400-richest people’s list, with $340 million of net worth.  Her

life inspired a Professor teaching at the University of Illinois, who created a

brand new course under the title: History 298: Oprah Winfrey, the Tycoon.

The World renowned networks, like the CNN, consider Oprah

the most powerful and inspirational woman in the globe, and is recognized for

her contribution to introducing the world to a new form of media communication,

where people talked their problems out loud, rather than pushing them inside,

creating a form of therapy for them. She dared to talk and raise awareness

about matters that public opinion was not ready to accept yet, like gay

acceptance, back in the 90’s. However, this whole attempt of confessions and therapy,

as aforementioned, would not have been crowned with success if Oprah had not

taught by example. For that reason, she was the first one to admit having

weight control problems and allowed herself be seen crying live publicly when

she would talk about a burdening issue. If others had been through the hell

Oprah had got into in her younger years, it would be unlikely they would still

have  kindness and compassion for others. Oprah managed to leave all bad

things behind and opened her inner self to goodness. She was steadily ranked

among the 50 most generous citizens of the United States, from 2004 until

2010.  She donated approximately $400 million on scholarships and another

$400 million on other educational purposes.

 

 

Many people tend to look at her current success, People

probably thought she had this ole so good life not knowing her childhood

growing up. She manage to look past her past. Many teenagers go through the

whole moving around process, yet don’t see what value can come from it. And also,

many teenagers believe that fame and success will just happen to them, without

actually finding any resources or acquiring any skills for it. There are really

too many words to describe Oprah .  She gives Charity, not only to the

ones she touches but to all of us women and men who look at her and say, how

she can do it all?  And really it is quite impossible for all of us to

understand why she does it.  But what I do understand is that she gets it

done.   Oprah is my Superwomen, maybe not the one on T.V, but in my

hearts. Oprah Winfrey has many admirable qualities that I admire. She is very

educated, rich and influential. She has influenced me to work hard despite any

need I may endure during the process. You can look at her experiences and be

motivated to move forward in life. Its so surreal to have a hero you love and

adore and you had actually met in real life. Oprah

Winfrey has definitely won the recognition as one of the world’s most generous

and influential women that rushed to help all those in need without letting her

troubled and painful past hold her back.

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