Michelle Obama - Becoming

What lessons can one learn from one of the finest role models of the world and someone who added so much grace to being FLOTUS -and the White House

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In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her -- from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it -- in her own words and on her own terms.

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Right from her childhood Michelle’s parents taught her the importance of never letting anyone walk over you and standing up to anyone who tried to bully you.

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Michelle’s parents instilled in her early on the wonders a good education can bring about — a value she adhered to even in her later years. Her story of how she ploughed through college, always being among the underdogs, and landed a well-paying job is motivating, impressing upon the reader how hard work can break all barriers of colour or birth.

In the book, Michelle shares how she didn’t let Barack’s vision and ambition overshadow her, rather helped her grow and become the best version of herself. She talks about the qualities needed to hold a marriage together. Her story of finding love and starting a family are awe-inspiring. Her words show what a compatible pair she and Barack made.

She also talks about the importance of holding your own in a relationship and not letting love define you. That sometimes, even though it might feel that all your happiness depends on the physical and emotional availability (or lack thereof) of your partner, the truth might be quite the opposite.

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It was possible that I was more in charge of my happiness than I was allowing myself to be.

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In Becoming, Michelle talks about so many other heart-rending issues like losing a parent, dealing with criticism on a daily basis, being called out for belonging to a different race, cultivating a healthy self-love cycle after dealing with crippling criticism, among several others.

When you’re First Lady, America shows itself to you in its extremes. I’ve been to fund-raisers in private homes that look more like art museums, houses where people own bathtubs made from gemstones. I’ve visited families who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and were tearful and grateful just to have a working refrigerator and stove. I’ve encountered people I find to be shallow and hypocritical and others— teachers and military spouses and so many more— whose spirits are so deep and strong it’s astonishing. And I’ve met kids— lots of them, all over the world— who crack me up and fill me with hope and who blessedly manage to forget about my title once we start rooting around in the dirt of a garden.

Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations -- and whose story inspires us to do the same.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michelle Robinson Obama served as First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Mrs. Obama started her career as an attorney at the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she met her future husband, Barack Obama. She later worked in the Chicago mayor's office, at the University of Chicago, and at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Mrs. Obama also founded the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an organization that prepares young people for careers in public service. She currently lives in Washington, DC, with her husband Barack Obama and two daughters, Malia and Sasha.