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00:00He would say things like, Lisa, God dropped you in the tar pit, and God left you in the
00:05oven too long, and I summarized it as, damn, I'm God's mistake, really?
00:11And I remember I had never seen myself as anything less than anybody.
00:17I just didn't have that conversation until I went there.
00:22I had been teased every day of the school year.
00:26There was this one kid, Brian, and Brian would remind me every day that God had made
00:31a mistake when God had created me.
00:35And I remember they were having tryouts for Charlie's Angels.
00:39Remember Charlie's Angels?
00:41You young bucks, I'm not talking about the new ones.
00:46Talking about the old school Charlie Angels.
00:48And they were having tryouts for Charlie's Angels, and the bionic woman, you remember
00:53Lindsay Wagner?
00:55Lindsay Wagner was amazing.
00:58So when they had tryouts, I said, oh my God, if I try out and I make it, and I become one
01:03of Charlie's Angels, or I become the bionic woman, then I belong.
01:10And 40 girls, 40 excited girls, stepped up to the line to be considered, to do the three
01:15things that you had to do, the three, you know, challenges you had to cross in order
01:20to become one of the Charlie's Angels, or the bionic woman.
01:23I was the only little chocolate girl there, just looking like a little kiss, right?
01:29So the first event was the 100-yard dash, ready, set, go.
01:36And I ran, ran, ran, ran, ran.
01:38When I crossed the finish line, the first person that just hit the 50-yard mark, Lisa
01:44Nichols wins the first event.
01:46I'm like, yes, one down, two to go.
01:49I'm almost in.
01:50I'm almost going to belong.
01:53Second event, we want you guys to jump over a chair, but I did something different.
02:03When I bent down to go over the chair, I did a little extra.
02:08When I came up, I went, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.
02:14Then I leaped over the chair, and I landed, and then I threw some Wonder Woman on.
02:21They were confused.
02:22They didn't know what hit them.
02:23They said, Lisa Nichols won the second event as well.
02:27And then the third and final event was the roll, stop, and freeze sucker.
02:33And I did it perfect, on the dime.
02:36So when the final, like, eight, nine girls are standing on the line, I'm like, oh my
02:40God, my life is going to change right now.
02:42I'm going to belong.
02:44And so I'm standing on the line, and I'm like, oh, life is about to look way different.
02:49Like the first thing I'm going to do is get my other Charlie's Angels girl, get my Bionic
02:52woman, and we're going to go and punch Brian.
02:54And so they said, Charlie's Angels number one, Diane, okay, that's not my name, Charlie's
03:08Angels number two, I'm so excited, Teresa, okay, that's cool, that's cool.
03:17I got one more Charlie's Angels or the Bionic woman, that's all right, it's all right, it's
03:20good, Charlie's Angels number three, Kim, it's good, I like the Bionic woman.
03:38And anyway, she just shows strength, that's all right, that's all right, that's all right.
03:44And the Bionic woman, yes, yes, yes, the Bionic woman is Linda, yes, that's not my name.
04:02I stood there for a moment, I can hear a few boos, a few people upset, and I finally
04:08mustered up the nerves to go over to the judges.
04:14Why didn't you choose me?
04:15I won every single event, I ran the fastest, Spro stopped and free suck on the dime and
04:22the asphalt was hot, I jumped over the chair and I made the sound effects.
04:31And one of the judges, long, beautiful blonde hair, she said, Lisa, we know you won every
04:39event, but we couldn't choose you.
04:44Which Charlie's Angels or the Bionic woman will you ever look like?
04:49And that day was the day that I began to blame myself for my story.
04:57For the next 15, all I tried to do was prove I was good enough, prove I was smart enough,
05:04prove that I was worthy of choosing.
05:07Anybody know what I'm talking about?
05:10And then I discovered that I wanted to begin to use my voice, I could hear this thing in
05:16my voice when I spoke and I said, I think there's something, I think there might be
05:21a gift up under all that junk.
05:24And I began to try my voice out and I was in a church and I was delivering a poem and
05:33at the end of the speech, I got a roaring standing ovation from the 15,000 people that
05:38were in this church.
05:39It was the biggest standing ovation, biggest audience I'd ever spoke in front of.
05:42And as I'm walking through the audience and all of a sudden I heard this voice that was
05:46so familiar with this hand on my shoulder, she said, you were amazing.
05:53And I turned around and I looked and it was television's bionic woman, Lindsay Wagner.
06:17I said, I did you, I've been down, I jumped, I do, do, do, do, do.
06:24No, really, I did that, I said it.
06:27I'm not just saying that for y'all, I mean, I was all in my story.
06:32Some of us are all in our story.
06:34And I looked at her, I said, they said I couldn't be you because I was black.
06:45They said I couldn't be you because I'd never look like you.
06:49And I knew I could never make myself look like you.
06:51I do a lot of things well, but I don't do blonde.
06:58She said, sweetheart, she said, I'm an actress.
07:04She said, I'm in Hollywood.
07:07She said, you, with your journey, you are the true bionic woman.
07:22And something shifted that day.
07:27I no longer could fit in my old story.
07:31There becomes a time when you no longer fit in your old story.
07:36I think that day is today, that there's a new part two trying to be born for you.
07:46And it requires you to own every part of the past, but own every part of the possibility.
07:52And on the other side of that, the diamonds that will drop out of your mouth, the diamonds
07:59that will come birthing from your soul, the seeds that will be planted and the harvest
08:05that will grow, you will be barely recognizable.
08:09But better than that are the people around you.