Cognotes 2019 Annual Conference Highlights - 3

COGNOTES

HIGHLIGHTS

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Hoda Kotb Shares Her Inspiring Story
By Elizabeth Uchimura, Florida State University

As Hoda Kotb took the stage for the
Auditorium Speaker Series June 22 she
exclaimed, "Look at all you beautiful librarians!" The "NBC News Today" co-anchor
and New York Times bestselling author easily
connected with the eager crowd, regaling her
journey in television journalism,
surviving breast
c a n c e r, a n d
adopting her two
daughters. Inviting and engaging, Kotb's talk
felt more like sitting down with
a friend at coffee than addressing hundreds of
librarians. Her
story serves as a
reminder to pay
attention what is Hoda Kotb
important in life
and how there are always blessings waiting
on the other side of adversity.
Kotb opened her talk by thanking librarians saying, "I can't tell you how much you
matter to your communities, your states,
and to this country." Kotb, whose mother
worked at the Library of Congress for 32
years, fondly remembers the awe and grati-

tude she felt for the libraries and
librarians that she grew up with.
She stressed the importance of
books in her life and in her children's lives, noting her daughter's
craving for books even as a twoyear-old.
Witty and light-hearted, she
described her journey,
beginning with her 10day trek across Southeast
America to interview for
television positions after
graduating college. After
27 rejections, she got lost
on her way back home
and was resigned to give
up her dream of television journalism until
happening upon one
Hoda Kotb on the 'Wow' of Books and Libraries
last station in Greenville,
Miss. It was there that she met Stan to change her perspective and to change her
Sandroni, who offered her a job that mindset. After pressing her for details, the
would eventually launch her illustri- man told her, "Don't hog your journey. It's
ous career. Kotb noted, "It only takes not just for you...you can help someone."
one person to love you" in order to From then on, Kotb began to demand more
from the life she was living.
receive opportunities.
She decided to focus on what she wanted
Several years later, while working on
"Dateline," Kotb got the call that she had instead of spending time on the things that
breast cancer. The TV personality quietly didn't matter to her. She began to ask for
recalled her reluctance to talk about her ex- what she wanted instead of hoping someperiences after her mastectomy until a chance one would see her need and hand it to her.
meeting with a stranger on a plane soon after And above all, she started talking about her
her surgery. Again, it only took one person dreams in an effort to make them real.

One of those dreams was having children
and a few months after voicing this dream,
Kotb would adopt her oldest daughter Haley.
Since then she feels that her priorities have
become crystal clear, with her family as her
"north star," and her children as her inspiration for her latest writing. She warned
the audience to be careful about writing in
journals, quipping that scribbles in a journal
might just become a book, just as they did
for I've Loved You Since Forever, which was
inspired by words she had written while she
was still dreaming about Haley.

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Cognotes 2019 Annual Conference Highlights

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