Becoming summary

Michelle grew up around people who were striving. Striving to make the most of what they had, and striving to give their children better opportunities than the ones they grew up with. Even as an elementary school student, Michelle strove to do well at school. However, given her circumstances, it wasn’t always easy to shine.

For instance, when Michelle started second grade, she was stuck in a class full of chaotic kids, with a helpless teacher unable to get things under control. Luckily, when Michelle explained how much she hated this class, her mom listened and soon had her tested and moved up to a third-grade class with other high-performing kids who liked to learn. 

Michelle was attracted to Princeton, in part, because her brother, Craig, was already enrolled there and had quickly become a star on the basketball team, much to their father’s delight. So Michelle wasn’t completely alone when she first stepped foot on the university’s pristine New Jersey campus. But that doesn’t mean the campus felt like a second home. Far from it, in fact.

On her first day at Princeton, Michelle dropped off her belongings in her dormroom and looked out her window to see a wave of  students – mostly white, mostly male – lugging their belongings across campus. This was a new feeling for Michelle, to be somewhere where she was one of the only nonwhite people. In fact, Michelle’s freshman class was less than 9 percent Black. It was, in her words, like being a poppy seed in a bowl of rice.

After finishing Harvard Law School in 1988, Michelle moved back to Chicago to join Sidley & Austin, a prestigious law firm. Part of Michelle’s job was to advise promising law students and possibly set them up to join the firm when they graduated. It was in this context that Michelle met a young hotshot named Barack Obama.

Before she ever met him, Michelle had heard people talking about this striking young man, but Michelle was skeptical. Harvard professors were calling him the most gifted student they had ever worked with. Yet, in Michelle’s experience, white professors often went cuckoo over any half-smart black man in a nice suit. Plus, he had the gall to show up late to their first appointment. And worst of all, he was a smoker!

What should have been an exciting time of new love was mostly a time of frustration, since Barack had to finish up at Harvard. To his credit, the school made him the first Black editor of the school’s prestigious journal, the Harvard Law Review.

And while the new couple were trying to make the best of a long-distance relationship, Michelle received some disturbing news. Her father was in the hospital. 

One sweaty summer night, early in their relationship, Michelle accompanied Barack to a church basement in Roseland, a neighborhood deep in the South Side of Chicago. People there had been struggling to rebuild their community after factory closings. Barack wanted to help. But in this cramped, fluorescent-lit basement, a group of mostly older women were highly skeptical of this well-dressed young Black man. What could he possibly do to help?

Michelle marvelled as Barack slowly won over the group. He spoke about the power of political engagement. Are you going to give up, or fight for a better world? He implored them to vote and to put pressure on their local representatives. By the end, the women were shouting “Amen!”

If there is one apparent difference between Michelle and Barack, it’s how they handle confrontations and personal attacks: Barack has the amazing ability to roll with the punches, while Michelle finds it difficult to brush off someone’s hurtful remark. In their life together so far, this difference hadn’t been much of an issue. But when you enter politics, you’re essentially opening the door to personal attacks and baseless accusations – and this can be a difficult thing to get used to, especially if you’re someone like Michelle. 

One of the first incidents to really affect Michelle came in late 1999, when Barack was in the middle of a primary campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. His opponents were fellow Democrats Bobby Rush and Donne Trotter.

Michelle’s opinion of politics didn’t exactly improve as time went on. In his role as a state senator, Barack was absent a lot. Simply finding the time to enjoy a family dinner together was a rare treat. In fact, Barack’s absence became such an issue that they eventually entered couples counseling. So when the idea of running for the US Senate was brought up, Michelle wasn’t thrilled.

What Michelle didn’t tell him at the time was that she truly doubted he would win. After all, he’d lost a congressional primary not long before. So Michelle did give her approval, but she made him promise that, if he lost, he would give up politics and find another way to make a difference in the world. As fate would have it, this time his Republican opponent dropped out of the race! 

Everything changed during the 2008 presidential campaign. The husband she once knew became a blur – a man in constant motion who needed to be everywhere at once. And then there were the threats, which meant that Barack received a secret-service security detail earlier than any other candidate in history.

Michelle understood the reasons for the heightened security, but she also worried about how this unusual life on the campaign trail would affect her kids. So, with the nation following their every move, Michelle tried to keep things as normal as possible.

There were some positive aspects to life in the White House. One immediate benefit was that Barack no longer had to make long daily commutes. The Oval Office was literally downstairs from where they lived! Oddly enough, as president, Barack was present for far more dinners than he ever was as a senator.

But now Michelle faced a new and very unique challenge: being the First Lady. Unfortunately, the job doesn’t come with a playbook. Nevertheless, Michelle was highly aware that the world was going to be watching. And since Michelle was not only First Lady but first African-American First Lady, the world was sure to be watching extra closely, and just waiting for a misstep.

When you’re the First Lady of the United States, going out on a date with your husband isn’t so easy. Nevertheless, during the first term, Michelle and Barack tried to carve out a night for themselves. It felt like ages since they’d been on a date, and the idea of dinner and a Broadway play seemed too amazing to pass up. Sure, it might require some serious planning, but it would be worth it, right?

As it turned out, not so much. The presidential motorcade brought New York traffic to a grinding halt, and people at both the restaurant and the theater had to go through security checks. It wasn’t just embarrassing; it opened the door to a parade of negative press.

Michelle Obama’s life has been one of striving – striving to excel as a student, a professional, a mom and a First Lady. Along the way, she learned to better understand who she was as an individual and what she wanted to do with her life, rather than striving to fulfill some predetermined expectation. Michelle became her own independent woman – a working mom who could help her kids as well as the people in her community. And just because she may have reached a certain point in her life, it doesn’t mean she’ll ever stop striving to help others.

Looking back, she can see that her time in the White House yielded quite a few successes. Along with the Let’s Move! program, which brought healthier school lunches to 45 million kids and signed up 11 million kids to associated afterschool programs, there was also the Joining Forces initiative, which helped 1.5 million veterans and their spouses get jobs. Meanwhile, her Let Girls Learn initiative raised billions of dollars to help girls around the world gain access to schools, along with the empowerment that can come with an education. These were certainly great achievements. But there’s an achievement that, for Michelle, is greater still: despite the countless demands of holding public office, she and her husband were able to raise two amazing daughters.