Michelle Obama is promoting her upcoming memoir Becoming in a unique and deeply personal way. The former First Lady, 54, has shared intimate and endearing photographs from throughout her life, explaining the meaning behind each snapshot.
The first image she chose was a family photo from her childhood in Chicago. She wrote: “My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word. My mother, Marian, showed me how to think for myself and to use my voice. Together, in our cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago, my family helped me see the value in our story, in my story, and in the larger story of our country.”
Next, she shared a photo of teenage Michelle attending college. “This is me at Princeton in the early 1980s,” she wrote. “I know that being a first-generation college student can be scary, because it was scary for me. I was black and from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago, while Princeton’s student body was generally white and well-to-do. I’d never stood out in a crowd or a classroom because of the color of my skin before. But I found close friends and a mentor who gave me the confidence to be myself. Going to college is hard work, but every day I meet people whose lives have been profoundly changed by education, just as mine was. My advice to students is to be brave and stay with it.”
The third photo she chose was from her wedding day to former United States President Barack Obama. “You can’t tell it from this photo, but Barack woke up on our wedding day in October, 1992 with a nasty head cold. Somehow, by the time I met him at the altar, it had miraculously disappeared and we ended up dancing almost all night,” she remembers. “Twenty five years later, we’re still having fun, while also doing the hard work to build our partnership and support each other as individuals. I can’t imagine going on this wild ride with anybody else.”
Finally, she shared a more recent image from her family’s time in the White House. “Home has always been where our family is…It hasn’t mattered whether we’re lounging on a couch in Chicago’s Hyde Park or, as we are here, in the White House,” she wrote. “We did our best to make the White House a comfortable place where our girls could climb trees and host slumber parties, where we’d have dinner together as a family, and where we tried to live by the values our parents instilled in us.”
The images she has shared are just a snapshot of what can be expected from her memoir, which will be released on November 13th 2018. Michelle revealed the cover of the book yesterday on social media.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjKXmgqg9Dn/?taken-by=michelleobama
All images courtesy of @michelleobama official.
