[Video] Oprah Winfrey Receives Honorary Degree, Tells Graduates: ‘There Is No Such Thing As Failure!’ + Check the Full Speech

Academia congrats are in order for Oprah Winfrey! This week, she was given anhonorary Doctor of Law degree by the university and was the featured speaker during the afternoon’s commencement exercises. She started off her speech exclaiming,

Oh my goodness. I’m at HAAAARVARD! Not too many girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge. … I consider today to be a defining milestone…while I may not have graduated from here, my personality is about as Harvard as they come.

She continued:

It doesn’t matter how far you might rise because at some point you might stumble. … And when you (fall), there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. When you’re down in the hole, it might look like failure. … Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost. Then, here’s the key: Learn from every mistake. Each mistake will force you to learn who you really are. … And then figure out what is the next right move. Now and forever more when you Google yourself the results will always read Harvard 2013, and that really is a calling card. You now have a chance to better your life, the life of your neighbors and that of our country… When you do that, that’s when your story gets really good.

Check out the full speech.

[AP, USA Today]