Don’t you miss The Oprah Winfrey Show? We know we do!

The TV legend has been breaking ground for nearly three decades, and in a recent cover for People magazine she is opening up about the moments that helped get her there.

“I say this to people all the time: ‘Nothing is waste,'” she told the outlet. “There is not a moment that you can have that can’t turn out to be useful later in life, and if you know that, life is like this huge, giant classroom.”

As People reports, Oprah cites five particular incidents that changed her life:

#1) Moving from Milwaukee to Nashville as a young teen.

“When I was in Milwaukee, I was trapped in a world where I could see how dire it was,” she said. “Had I not gotten out of Milwaukee, nothing would have been the same. I do believe I would have been dead at 56. I believe I would have been 437 lbs. I believe I would have had diabetes. I would have had high blood pressure. I would have suffocated knowing that things could have been different.”

#2) Swearing off sensationalist TV in 1989 after two pivotal episodes.

“It was the KKK skinhead show [during which fights broke out repeatedly and one guest was kicked out for profanity] and then the show with a man, his wife . . . and his mistress,” she said to People.

“At the time, the producers thought this was one of the greatest bookings we could ever get. We thought, ‘He’s agreed to come on with his girlfriend? This is unbelievable.’ Then there was a moment when the man says to his wife, ‘You know what? There’s nothing you can do about [the affair], because [my mistress] is pregnant.’ We were live and I didn’t know he was going to tell her, nor did the producers know.”

Want to read the other three? You’re going to have to pick up a copy of People.

Read more details on how these incidents changed Oprah’s life at People.com.