My mom will cry tomorrow. What many of us just see as the last Wednesday in May could be one of the saddest days in my mom’s life: the day The Oprah Winfrey Show will air its final episode.
Saying goodbye to a beloved TV show is always a painful experience, so I understand why she will be upset (I’m still not over the end of Lost). Every week we watch, forming relationships with the characters and their lives on the screen. The same even goes for daytime talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show. Even though I’m not a middle-aged woman, I recognize that The Oprah Winfrey Show has been a part of my life for all of my life.
Although I was by no means an avid viewer, I have watched my fair share of The Oprah Winfrey Show throughout the years. I occasionally watched whenever one of my favorite celebrities would be on, like when the cast of Glee appeared on the show last year. I never missed one of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” episodes, audience hysterics and all. I loved seeing all of the cool new items I had never heard of and secretly wished Winfrey would step out of the TV and give them away to me, too.
While I will miss the entertaining hours of TV, what I will really miss is my childhood. This may sound funny coming from a 20-year-old student at Northwestern, but it’s true. I have never experienced a day when The Oprah Winfrey Show didn’t exist. As I continue my entrance into adulthood, the end of The Oprah Winfrey Show is like the official end to my childhood.
Perhaps one of the reasons why I connect The Oprah Winfrey Show with my younger years is not only because it has been on the air all of my life, but also because it reminds me of one of my favorite childhood memories. The Oprah Winfrey Show has been taped in Chicago for all 25 seasons, so it has become a Chicago institution. Along with that, Winfrey has occasionally showcased what the city has to offer. On one episode in the late 1990s, Winfrey gave her viewers an exclusive tour of the soon-to-be-opened American Girl Place, devoted to the American Girl doll experience. At 7 or 8 years old, I loved my American Girl dolls more than anything, and seeing that a place existed where you could shop, eat, see a show and just have a fun day with your doll seemed like such a magical place to me.
My desire to visit the American Girl Place inspired my family to take a summer vacation to Chicago. We not only visited the American Girl Place, but we also visited many other Chicago landmarks, getting to know the city, if only for a week. Even though I have visited cities across America and Europe since then, that vacation is still one of my favorites.
At 8 years old, I fell in love with the city of Chicago, and maybe somewhere subconsciously, when I decided which college to attend, I knew I wanted to return there one day. Winfrey may have somehow helped influence me to come to Northwestern, a place where I have experienced some of the best moments of my life so far.
Even though I would not consider myself a fan of The Oprah Winfrey Show, I recognize the place it has had in my life. I can’t imagine coming home and not seeing my mom watch The Oprah Winfrey Show every weekday, but from now on, I will have to. This part of my life is over, and now I have to grow up.
So yes, my mom will cry tomorrow. And I may cry, too.