My Day with Oprah
I had just gotten home from seeing 10 patients, exhausted from running back and forth on Long Island’s south shore, trying to make it on time to my never-ending appointments. Let me tell you, when I get home from such an extensive day, aside from walking Luna and feeding her, I have no energy left in my body. All that I end up doing is scrolling through endless Instagram posts as an episode of the Office or Shitt’s Creek plays in the background. As I was half asleep and scrolling through my feed that day, I was half paying attention when an announcement from Oprah, the queen herself, came into view. She was coming to NYC for her 2020 Vision Tour.
That definitely jolted me awake and I jumped into action. I texted my two girlfriends who I knew would be as excited as me for this event to see if they wanted to get tickets with me. After a few hell yeses, the pre-sale tickets were ours. We were going to see Oprah, holy smokes!
Not only that, but we also found out that her main guest of the day would be the one and only FLOTUS, Michelle Obama. I have to be honest here. I knew a bit about the former First Lady but I wasn’t her biggest fan. In order to learn more about her, I took to reading her memoir, Becoming. The book was incredibly well written and gave me a glimpse into who she was as a person and her values, outside of the White House. Needless to say, I became a huge fan and could hardly wait for their conversation.Â
February 8th rolled around the corner and my friends and I happily took our nosebleed seats at the Barclay Stadium waiting for the show to start at 9 am. The day’s agenda was filled to the brim with mindful and spiritual activities, motivational speakers, and moments of reflection, which is 100% up to our alley.
The day started off with a dance party with the Daybreaker. They are a Brooklyn-born company that specializes in morning dance parties to start the day with energy and intention. I have to say I am not typically one to dance especially so early in the morning, but the Daybreaker crew got us on our feet in no time. It was actually incredible to start our day off that way, allowing us to release some pent-up energy and just be ourselves, next to 15,000 event attendees.
Then the moment we were waiting for came, Oprah came out on stage. I’ve seen many celebrities in my life, but this wasn’t a typical celebrity sighting for me. She is a representation of something bigger, something more important. I wasn’t star-struck, I was in awe of her as a human being and as a teacher.Â
Oprah’s message was simple, she motivated us to believe in ourselves. She taught us the mantra of “I can, I will, watch me!”, inspiring us to take action towards greatness. She made us reflect on whether we wanted to make a change one day or rather if today was day one of living our dream lives. She included a workbook in our goodie bags, where we were able to complete some exercises to pinpoint the areas of our lives that needed improvements, such as nutrition or emotional wellness, and write out goals on how we will improve these areas.
The queen, encouraging us to find our vision and word for the year, I chose mine to be “bravery”. I decided on the word because I’m ready to stop hiding being my fears of what other people think of me, and just be unapologetically myself. Rachel Hollis who was also a speaker at the event humorously discussed the fear we have of people from our past and school years judging our lives and all our moves. We compare our everyday selves to these people’s lives on social media, after they have applied multiple filters and have taken hundreds of pictures looking for that one perfect picture to share, to demonstrate how well their lives are going. That’s not their everyday reality. Don’t let these fears and comparisons stop you from following your dreams. Newsflash, they don’t even care about your life in the way you fear. If you haven’t spoken to or seen them in a while, they don’t care about what you are doing or what you have to say. Don’t let these fears stop you from becoming you!Â
As the day passed, we continued to connect with our bodies. We meditated, which was so powerful. We also danced with Julianne Hough and connected with nature and the elements thanks to her Kinrgy program. It is a high-sensory motivated dance method. There was something special about that program, and I am looking forward to exploring it further.
The last speaker of the day was Michelle Obama. She’s an incredibly humble and passionate woman, who opened up about her life, her parenting style, and her own vulnerabilities. I was in awe watching these two powerful females on the stage, inspiring people around the world to become the best versions of themselves, that in fact, it is possible to become the best versions of ourselves and inspire other people to do the same.
Perhaps the most important lesson of the day for me was looking through the lens of intention. Intention has a cause-and-effect relationship. There is an intention behind each action we take, and that intention will determine the outcome of said actions. If our intention is to live up to our potential, and we continue to strive towards that, putting in the causes and actions to take us there, no matter how hard it may be, that intention will come true one day. Setting our intentions connects us to our higher purpose. We just sometimes forget that the road to get there is not easy and may give up or get off that path along the way. Oprah reminded me that intention is key. No matter how hard the journey, you need to keep going and one day you will arrive.
Thank you, Oprah, for the most wonderful day. I cannot wait, until one day, I am part of the agenda, taking my turn as the guest at your event.
Awesome! Can’t wait to see you as the guest on her show ????
Great content! Super high-quality! Keep it up! 🙂
Thank you so much! I appreciate your support 🙂
Thank you so much!