Read Online What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey - Free Book Online Page B

experience. But by the time I arrived in California, I felt like a small fish dropped into the Hollywood fishbowl. I started to doubt myself: Who was I to think I could just walk into their world and expect them to talk to me? Reporters from all over the country had been invited. There were throngs of us local newscasters, entertainment/lifestyle reporters, each given five minutes to interview an actor from the TV season’s upcoming lineup. I started to feel nervous. Uncomfortable. Inept. Not good enough to be there with all those other reporters from much bigger cities with more experience than I.
    To make matters worse, a representative for Priscilla Presley, who was there for a new show she was hosting, told me—as I was eleventh in line to talk to her—“You can ask her anything, but whatever you do, don’t mention Elvis. She’ll walk out on you.” So now I wasn’t just intimidated by this new world of “stars” and their handlers—I was feeling completely inhibited.
    I’d been a TV reporter since I was 19. I’d interviewed hundreds of people in difficult situations and prided myself on being able to break the ice and establish rapport. But I wasn’t accustomed to real “stars.” I thought they had some mystique, that being famous made them not only different but also better than us regular folk. And I was having difficulty figuring out how I’d pull that off in a five-minute time frame with the most real questions being off-limits.
    For some reason—you might call it a coincidence; I call it grace in action—I was switched from the Priscilla Presley line to interview a young comedian who was starting a new show called Mork & Mindy. What followed were five of the most exhilarating, wild, off-the-charts minutes I’d ever spent in an interview, with the most uninhibited, out-of-the-box, free-falling-in-every-second celebrity/human I’d ever met.
    I don’t remember a word I said (but I know I hardly said any). He was a geyser of energy. I remember thinking, Whoever this guy is, he is going to be BIG. He wasn’t afraid to be his many selves. I had great fun playing with Robin Williams, and I learned in that instant to go where the interview takes you. He was all over the place, and I had to flow with it.
    So when my turn came to talk to Miss Priscilla, I for sure had received the lesson: You can’t accomplish anything worthwhile if you inhibit yourself.
    I asked about Elvis. She didn’t walk out. In fact, she obliged me with an answer.
    If life teaches you nothing else, know this: When you get the chance, go for it.

     
     
    My biggest mistakes in life have all stemmed from giving my power to someone else—believing that the love others had to offer was more important than the love I had to give to myself. I remember being 29 and in a relationship based on lies and deceit, down on my knees crying after Mr. Man, once again, brought me low. I had been waiting for him all evening—he stood me up, arriving hours after our date, and I had dared to ask why. I remember him standing in the doorway and hurling these words at me: “The problem with you, baby doll, is that you think you’re special.” At which point he turned on his heels and slammed the door in my face.
    I had grown up watching my cousin Alice be physically abused by her boyfriend, and I had vowed I would never take such treatment. But sitting there on the bathroom floor after he walked out, I saw with great clarity that the only difference between Alice and me was that I hadn’t been hit. Mr. Man was wrong: I did not think I was special—and that was the problem. Why was I allowing myself to be treated this way?
    Even with these insights it took me another year to end the relationship. I kept hoping and praying things would get better, that he would change. He never did. I started praying for the strength to end it. I’d pray and wait to feel better. And wait. And wait. All the while repeating my same old patterns.
    Until one day I got