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Becoming
The intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
Becoming (2018) tells the story of Michelle Obama, née Robinson, who was born to loving parents in a working-class Chicago neighborhood and went on to become a great student and a strong, independent woman, who just happened to meet and fall in love with Barack Obama. This is the life story of a woman who didn’t expect to become the first African American woman to reside in the White House, yet found a way to continue exercising her own unique voice under the most unusual and trying of circumstances.
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Michelle Obama graduated from Princeton University before attending Harvard Law School and then joining the prestigious Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin. Her career continued in the mayor’s office of Chicago’s City Hall, then as the Executive Director of the youth mentoring program Public Allies and as the Executive Director for Community Affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center. Since becoming the First Lady of the United States, she has written numerous books and been an advocate for children’s health and the issues facing military families.
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Becoming
The intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States
- Read in 19 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 12 key ideas
Synopsis
Becoming (2018) tells the story of Michelle Obama, née Robinson, who was born to loving parents in a working-class Chicago neighborhood and went on to become a great student and a strong, independent woman, who just happened to meet and fall in love with Barack Obama. This is the life story of a woman who didn’t expect to become the first African American woman to reside in the White House, yet found a way to continue exercising her own unique voice under the most unusual and trying of circumstances.
Key idea 1 of 12
Michelle Robinson had a loving family, with a great aunt who taught her how to play piano.
In 1968, Chicago was home to the Democratic National Convention, which broke out in a violent clash between police and Vietnam War protesters. Michelle Robinson’s family lived just 9 miles from the Convention Center, in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. But since she was just four years old at the time, she was oblivious to the turbulent politics of the day and much more interested in playing with her dolls.
Michelle was part of a loving family, with a brother who was two years older, a father who worked at the water filtration plant, and a mom who was a wiz with a sewing needle and very active in community fundraising and organizations like her local parent-teacher association. Her father also loved jazz and art, and many of Michelle’s earliest memories revolve around the music that was always in the air around her.
The four of them lived on the second floor of a two-story house, with her maternal great aunt and uncle on the first floor. Her great aunt, Robbie, was a piano teacher, so the sound of scales and songs being played by her students was another musical aspect of her childhood. It also led to Michelle starting lessons with Robbie when she was just four years old.
Robbie could be a tough and scary taskmaster, and the two clashed frequently during their lessons, with Michelle already quite strong-minded as a youngster. But Robbie saved the day when Michelle was set to start her song at her first big piano recital at the concert hall in Roosevelt University.
The problem was, Robbie’s piano had a conveniently chipped middle C key. The middle C is used to help a player position their hands on the piano, so having this little-chipped corner on Robbie’s piano made it easy for Michelle to spot it. On the stage at Roosevelt University, young Michelle knew her song backward and forward, but she was suddenly frozen, unable to spot the middle C.
Fortunately, Robbie was sitting in the front row and knew what to do. She calmly walked up to the stage, reached over her shoulder like a guardian angel and pointed to the middle C. Michelle was now able to start her recital.
Key ideas in this title
- Michelle Robinson had a loving family, with a great aunt who taught her how to play piano.
- As Chicago’s South Side was changing, Michelle strove to become a good student and feel that she was good enough.
- At Princeton, Michelle entered a whole new world and found a great mentor in Czerny Brasuell.
- After law school, Michelle met Barack Obama, and a romance eventually blossomed.
- In the early 1990s, Michelle and Barack got married and found new, engaging work.
- After writing his first book, Barack was presented with a political opportunity, which Michelle wasn’t so keen on.
- As their family grew, so did Barack’s political career, which led to their first taste of how personal political attacks can get.
- Despite her skepticism about politics, Michelle’s attitude changed during the presidential campaign.
- As First Lady, Michelle strove to give her children as normal a childhood as she could.
- Michelle also strove to find her own voice through projects like the Let’s Move! initiative.
- There were difficulties along the way, but Michelle Obama feels proud of what they accomplished in the White House.
- Final summary
