Summer is approaching and one thing I would tell someone is to take a step and take a look at "Becoming" by Michelle Obama. When former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, first created her debut memoir "Becoming", it was obvious that it would be successful. This book which was released November 13th, 2018, sold over 725,000 copies in the very first day and onto becoming (see what I did there) the best-selling book of the year.
The book has 24 chapters and is divided into three sections: Becoming Me, Becoming Us, and Becoming More. Becoming Me goes into Michelle Obama's upbringing in the South Side of Chicago, through her education at Princeton University with her brother Craig Robinson playing on the basketball playing, and pursuing her Juris Doctor at Harvard Law School. Reading this section made me love Michelle Obama even more, because she stayed true to herself and she worked hard to get where she is today. She is such a strong public figure and I'm glad that she has elected to stay in the public eye which is different from the other First Ladies who tend to step away from the spotlight. This section also goes into detail about her career at Sidley Austin which is a big law firm in Chicago. That's when future President Barack Obama stepped into her life, changed everything and she still didn't make it easy for him. This section made me love President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama even more than I already do, because their relationship is so strong and such an inspiration to me. I was reading the section where President Obama proposed to Michelle and I was in tears, because it was such a great way to propose to someone.
Becoming Us goes into President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's marriage and the beginning of his political career in the Illinois State Senate. She talks about her struggles with infertility and having a miscarriage. This was probably my favorite part of this book, because she was so real and honest about her life and I didn't know that a miscarriage happens to a lot of women and I believe she has opened about a bigger conversation about miscarriages and it is unfortunately normal for a woman to have one. She also talks about her and Barack going to marriage counseling which was extremely important, because they can relate to anyone that is going through a rough patch. I though that part was extremely riveting, because she was acknowledging the fact that marriage is hard and they work on their marriage too. My favorite part in this section was going into the details of President Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign where she talked about some of the idea's she would have if she became First Lady even though she didn't believe that he would win, but hey things change.
The last section of this book Becoming More, this is more of how she felt after President Trump was elected. I loved this section, because she felt the same way that I was feeling which was the struggle to understand how he even got elected. One thing she made clear was her feelings towards President Trump when he started the Birther Movement and pushing President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate. "What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family's safety at risk. And for this I'd never forgive him." (Michelle Obama). This was extremely profound, because she was speaking her mind and this book allowed her to express herself and she also talked about not smiling during President Trump's Inauguration and she believed that the country was going backwards which I agree with.
This book was exactly what I thought it would be which was amazing, riveting, life changing and helped me realize that Michelle Obama is still becoming the best version from herself just like me! I would recommend anyone to read this book if you love Michelle Obama, it is extremely riveting and powerful. If you have time this summer instead of watching tv, read this book and enjoy this book. I'll leave with this quote from the book which has stuck with me "Now that I'm an adult, I realize that kids know at a very young age when they're being devalued, when adults aren't invested enough to help them learn. Their anger over it can manifest itself as unruliness. It's hardly their fault. They aren't "bad kids." They're just trying to survive bad circumstances.".
