Essay on Topic 3.

3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

The first time I heard about Oprah Winfrey was when I was in elementary school. Specifically, when I was twelve. All I have heard at that time was that there is a black women who has succeeded in the U.S., after overcoming some hardships through her life. At that time, I had no doubt that it was only one of many typical, boring success stories. However, when I encountered with an article about Oprah Winfrey on the internet, I could not help being shocked and could never help begin to admire her. After reading the article, I tried to find more and more informations about her on the internet, and the printed stories and phrases of her still takes the first place of my paper files. Oprah Winfrey gave two important lessons to my life : purpose and books.

The first thing that shocked me was Oprah Winfrey's hardships in her young ages. She lived in an extreme poverty with all the maltreatments from her relatives. Furthermore, she was sexually abused by her cousin at the age of 9, and even once became an unwed mother, even though her baby died only 2 weeks after the childbirth. I could not even imagine the extent to which she had to suffer from her mental pain. She overcame all this hardships and audaciously became one of the most popular, most respected, and most succeed people in the U.S., where prejudices of black people still exist. Her life helped me with going through my own hardships. Looking back on her life, it was a great help itself to think about how her attitudes and minds would be like if she was in my situation. She obviously had a will of iron. I also try to persue this robust spirit and with this, I do not easily give up on anything. Oprah Winfrey motivated me to try harder on every aspects on my life and herself became a role model for me to look up. She had a significant influence on me .

Oprah Winfrey says what made her be in her today's place, is the ceaseless intellectual pursuit. She had always enjoyed reading books ever since she was very young, and now she recommends many books in the Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. Through this mere recommendations, she audaciously begot a lot of best sellers, and induced the whole world including myself to read books. Actually, the books usually become best sellers only a nanosecond after her recommendation of the book takes place, and her single phrase "The book changed my whole life" is influencing other people's whole lives. I myself tried hard to make a habit of reading after I have known her, and now I actually read a lot. Through books, I was enabled to speculate holistically about my life, and also was greatly influenced in establishing my perspective toward not only to my life, but also to the whole world. I do not have any suspicion that these will be great assets through my whole life. Oprah Winfrey gave me a present named book, which now I always make a present of.

In the final analysis, Oprah Winfrey had a significant impact on my whole life. Her indomitable spirit and audacious passion have definitely reached to my heart, and she also introduced me a revolution named book. Furthermore, her approaches and perspectives of life which are embodied through her words made me contemplate. In these ways, I believe Oprah Winfrey had largely influenced me. I admire her and try to resemble her great aspects. The reason why she is ahead of all the great figures in history and takes a great part in my mind, may be that her true heart, touched mine.