Everyone should read this book!
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I’d been lucky to have parents, teachers, and mentors who’d fed me with a consistent, simple message: You matter. As an adult, I wanted to pass those words to a new generation. It was the message I gave my own daughters, who were fortunate to have it reinforced daily by their school and their privileged circumstances, and I was determined to express some version of it to every young person I encountered.
This book is not political. This book is Michelle Obama’s autobiography, where she goes into great detail on how she got to where she is today. She starts with her upbringing, growing up on the South side of Chicago, where her parents, her brother and her shared a small apartment on the second story of her aunt’s house. She explains how her parents were always the ones to encourage her and her brother. There is a lot of information about growing up black in the US, being an ancestor of slaves. She then explains how she got into college, ended up studying law, and how she was never happy being in corporate law. She tells us how she met Barack, how their love story developed, how they got married and had two kids, and ultimately, how Barack got into politics. Well, we know the rest.
It is hard to write about this book, because I feel that no words of mine could do it justice. I could not put this book down, although it was not an easy read. I absolutely loved it. Michelle writes so eloquently and beautifully. There were so many passages I marked to go back to at a later date. Her writing just confirmed what I had already thought of her, but it was more than that: I found her life and her thoughts on it deeply interesting. It is beautiful to see how appreciative she is of her parents and other people involved in her upbringing, and how she works tirelessly to get some version of that to more of Americas daughters. There are so many things I was able to take away from reading, and I plan on rereading it sometime in the future. A powerful memoir that everyone should read!
I’m an ordinary person who found herself on an extraordinary journey. In sharing my story, I hope to help create space for other stories and other voices, to widen the pathway for who belongs and why…It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about where you get yourself in the end. There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.