Although she couldn’t give the grads new cars, she surely made an impression on the 4,000 graduates gathered there. According to the San Jose Mercury News, she spoke of her life choices, saying that one should always put feelings before logic because “Feelings are really your GPS system for life,” said Oprah. She encouraged the Class of 2008 to leave their egos aside and go for the greater good, by trusting their hearts.
Stanford's 117th annual commencement
ceremony was held in the new Stanford Stadium, where
more than 4,000 graduates were listening to the media
mogul, philanthropist and producer who managed, once more, to make her
way through people’s hearts.
Her speech was both humorous and inspirational, offering the students a glimpse of her personal life as she talked about her television debut. Oprah said that, when she worked as a television news anchor in Baltimore, her boss told her to change her name into Susie but she didn’t agree, replying: “Do I look like a Susie to you?”
She also said that failure was “"life's way of saying that it's time to change course,” adding that she later lost her job but discovered that her true calling was to be a host show.
Her profession gave her the possibility to also “give back,” suggesting that one of the best choices the graduates could make would be to help those in need.
“To be happy, you have to give something back,” said Oprah according to the San Jose Mercury News. That was the moment when the 30,000 people gathered there broke into applause.Everyone agreed that the speech was inspirational and “terrific.”
They graduated also received two books: Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” and Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.”
What more could those Stanford graduates ask for? With a great education behind and a great speech to motivate them, they are all set to go into the world.