Oprah Winfrey

So, yes, I was really excited to leave home.

I felt –

I didn't, you know what, I got immediately in debt because I ended up with a credit card and I ended up with $1,800 worth of debt.

And I remember taking out a consolidation loan at the First National Bank because I didn't know how I was ever going to get, I was going to ever get myself out of $1,800 worth of debt because with the interest payments, yeah, the interest payments, and I was only making like $100 a week.

And so, so bottom line is,

Yeah, I felt prepared.

I've never felt like an imposter anywhere.

Ever.

And the reason is, is because my faith is so strong.

I was raised to believe that I was God's child from the time that I was a little girl.

I remember standing on the back porch watching my grandmother, because, y'all, I was raised like Abraham Lincoln, okay?

So when I go to speak at schools, which I don't do so much anymore, but I remember the first time I was speaking at a school and the third grader said, did you know Abraham Lincoln?

And I said, no, but I was raised like him.

So I understand why my story feels like Abraham Lincoln.

No running water, raised with no running water, no electricity, outhouse, literally a bedpan that I would have to empty in the morning after, you know, my grandmother and I would, you know, use if we would go to the bathroom overnight.

And so growing up in a rural environment, I remember watching my grandmother, you know,

boiling clothes because no washing machine, obviously, no electricity, boiling clothes.

She was a domestic worker and she was doing these sheets in the backyard for this white family that she worked for.

And I remember her saying to me, Oprah Gail, you better watch me now because one day you will have to learn how to do this for yourself.

And I distinctly remember the feeling that no, I won't.