Michelle Obama – Carol's Notebook

Author: Michelle Obama

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American lawyer, university administrator, and writer, who was the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and she was the first African American First Lady of the United States.

Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In her early legal career, she worked at the law firm Sidley Austin where she met Barack Obama. She subsequently worked in non-profits and as the associate dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago as well as the vice president for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle married Barack in 1992, and they have two daughters.

Obama campaigned for her husband’s presidential bid throughout 2007 and 2008, delivering a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She returned to speak for him at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. During the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, she delivered a speech in support of the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, a former first lady.

As first lady, Obama served as a role model for women and worked as an advocate for poverty awareness, education, nutrition, physical activity, and healthy eating. She supported American designers and was considered a fashion icon.

In Becoming, Michelle Obama tells her story. She talks about growing up poor in Southside Chicago. She talks about the love of her family, the value they placed on hard work and education. She discusses her career, the right path she started on and the twists and turns it took. She talks about meeting Barack, their early marriage, and how they function as a couple. Of course, she eventually gets around to the presidential campaign and their time in the White House, but she (mostly) stays with her point of view, her difficulties, and her initiatives. She also touches on her difficulties with putting her career on hold to support her husband's career and how unfair things could feel. She talks about the difficulties of raising two girls, the tightrope of keeping them safe but allowing them to have "normal" childhoods and teen years, of appreciating the luxuries they have but still being grounded in "regular" life. Michelle Obama is...