I'm going to the Oprah Show

A couple years ago, my husband and I made a bucket list together, and it included attending an Oprah Show. So I've been trying to get tickets (with plenty of rejections), and with this being Oprah's last year and tickets in high demand, I seriously doubted that I'd ever be able to checkmark that goal off our list. It really bummed me out.

However, today I received word that I'm going!

Just being there and seeing in person someone as famous and influential as Oprah is good enough on its own, but to make it even better, the show I'll be attending is on Charles Dickens and featuring Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize winning author. Now before you say, "Huh? What's the big deal? I don't get it. Boring! So what?", please let me explain.

Back when I was getting my Bachelor's Degree in English, I fell in love with British Literature. Something about the country, the history, and the literary language enthralled me. I took classes specifically on great British authors, such as Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Shakespeare, Austen, Chaucer. (Yes, I'm a big geek, but I'm okay with that.)

Charles Dickens (Photo Credit: David Perdue's Dickens Page)

I then went on to teach high school English for eight years, and Dickens' Great Expectations was pretty much always in my lesson plan book. Students complained about it, but at the end of the year, when they presented on the most memorable characters, it almost always included Pip, Estella, or Miss Havisham. So the time invested in reading that "old-fashioned" and "boring" book was worth it.

Later, when I was pursuing my Master's in English, I was introduced to Jane Smiley. I read A Thousand Acres and Age of Grief, and I thought Smiley was brilliant. In A Thousand Acres, she wrote in a quiet, profound manner and captured so well the intricacies of family relationships and family secrets. It's a neat, modernized twist of Shakespeare's King Lear.

Jane Smiley (Photo Credit: Missouri Humanities Council)

So Oprah and Dickens and Smiley all in one day? That's beyond bliss to me. Few people I know (or maybe even none) understand me on this or would be as ecstatic, but that's okay. Just be happy and say "Hurray!" with me. :)

As with some of Oprah's book club episodes, it won't air at least in its entirety on television, but it will be viewable on her website.

The date is set: Friday, February 18th. I'm allowed to bring one guest, and I've chosen my husband, because he's my best friend, and it's our bucket list after all--the things we want to see and do together.