Michelle Obama inspires all in “Becoming”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REVIEW:

By: Saloma Ayoub

Staff Writer

Michelle Obama’s autobiography “Becoming” guides readers through her life story and highlights why they all need advocates, mentors and individuals to challenge them in their lives.

Without waiver or hesitation, Obama explained her life. Her parents, Fraser and Marian Robinson, worked hard to raise two very successful children in a two bedroom apartment. Her great aunt Robin taught her the piano. Her second-grade teacher was not equipped for the circumstances of an impoverished school system.

She explained to her readers the way multiple sclerosis impacted her father’s capacity to be the towering man who took care of his family. At that time, he faced setbacks in his career by training 20-year-olds who he knew would get promoted 10 times before he ever saw a raise.

Her story anchored on the bitter cold reality of the secluded life they had due to racial segregation, including how it seeps into our lives today. It makes readers ask themselves how things have changed since then.

Her undergrad experience at Princeton also had the secluded feeling of ivy wrapping itself around her ankles. She tells us the story of her white college roommate that disappeared mid-semester because their mother was appalled her daughter roomed with a black girl.

She told readers of the challenges, attached strings and shadows that follow the phrase, “First Black [fill in the blank].”

As a Harvard Law graduate, Obama had her pick of any law firm. She met and mentored an intern. Michelle all but had her life figured out.

This intern was Barack Obama. Ironically, Michelle attempted to set Barack up with multiple acquaintances and hilariously bailed him out when the dull match failed to spark.

Obama had less than three weeks left in Chicago before he returned to Harvard Law school when they bailed on an office party and got ice cream on the way home.

Baskin-Robbins in the middle of a summer heat wave welded their lives together, establishing that Baskin-Robbins truly is magical.

He showed her to swerve every so often in life. His own civic engagement in the south side of Chicago is what won her heart.

She explained how during the campaign VOTE!, her then just boyfriend gave voices to thousands of Illinois voters, who had hammered into their mind their voices didn’t matter. Barack drove a large force in enticing the growing college-aged students to vote and take part in politics.

She then emulated his risk-taking and quit her six-figure secured job. She wanted to try to make a larger impact in city hall: the stuffy, an immediate personal effective line of work.

Once Obama graduated law school, he moved back to Chicago with her. Inevitably, their lives ended up in politics.

She grew weary of each transition that consumed their family over time, including the exposure and weight it placed on their children growing up.

The book was so well-written and genuine that when she described the primary election night of 2008 readers will be shocked to hear Barack Obama won the election.

Barack’s growing involvement as a senator and her moving up the chain taking a position at the University of Chicago as two very oversubscribed individuals posed a risk to Malia’s health as she became obese. This inspired her initiative as the first lady to promote and become an advocate herself for children’s health.

Obama’s “Becoming” will give your heart a squeeze and at times will take less than 20 words to make you cry.

“Becoming” explained how their lives changed as he took the oath, the day the two Obamas met and the challenges they faced in expanding their family.