Sound-Off: Lessons From Professor 'O'

It’s fitting that Oprah is ending her show in May, the month that not only celebrates mothers, our very first teachers, but graduation as well. For me there have been two remarkable teachers that I have admired in my life, my mother being the first and Oprah.

I believe my mother is a born healer. A person placed on Earth to help guide others out of their pain. So, it was only fitting that she became a nurse and then a yogi. There are some people that when you’re near them your own light begins to shine brighter, they make you feel like anything is possible. That is my mother and that is Oprah. Now, I confess, I’ve never been “near” Oprah unless you count the proximity from my couch to my television. But like millions I have been inspired.

Something magical happens in the hour you spend with Oprah. Just like the times I spend with my mother as an adult, I leave feeling supercharged and ready to conquer the world with a question floating through my mind like a thought bubble above a cartoon character, how can my life be of service?

Unlike most of television today that thrives off of people willing to exploit themselves for a buck, Oprah remained our cultural conscious. Reminding us that time is fleeting and we should concentrate on living our best life, making our lives about service and pushing the limits of our destiny. Which is radical thinking compared to the sex-tape = fame scenario we are presently living in.

Like my mother, Oprah used her life as lessons on how to persevere through the many obstacles that life has in store. My mother was an immigrant to this country with only her dreams of caring for people filling her pockets. Oprah was a young colored girl from the South, whose chances were between slim and none to be successful. These women taught me that your life is limitless when you have ambition and passion.

Staying steadfast to your dreams, living honestly and passionately is the lesson that I have taken away from the past 25 years of attending Oprah’s school of thought. And now after 25 years of study and hard lessons it’s time for us to graduate with our CEO degree from O! University.

She taught us that if we want to be real CEOs over our lives and obtain our dreams, we must strive to Create Energy and Opportunity where ever we go!
Now, how will you put your degree to work and be of service?

Danielle Moodie-Mills is Living, Loving and Laboring OUT Loud! She serve as an advisor for LGBT Policy and Racial Justice at the Center for American Progress where her work looks at the impact of public policy on gay and transgender African Americans.

Follow her on Twitter @threeLOL