Becoming

Barack and Michelle leave the White House on January 20, 2017, accompanying Donald and Melania Trump. They are determined to transition with “grace and dignity.” At the inauguration, Michelle sees that the “vibrant diversity” of the previous two inaugurations is no longer there, replaced by an “overwhelmingly white and male tableau.” Someone in Barack’s administration might have said that the optics were bad, that it didn’t reflect the president’s ideals—but Michelle realizes that the stage might exactly represent the new president’s ideals. Michelle stops trying to smile.

Michelle is now in a new phase of life, released from any obligation as a political spouse. She is able to think differently about what comes next, and believes that she is still “in progress.” She writes that “becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim”; instead it is a way of reaching “continuously toward a better self.”

Michelle does clarify one thing: she will never run for political office. But, she writes, she still cares deeply about the future, and since Barack left office, she has been extremely distressed and frustrated at stories she’s read in the news. She won’t allow herself to become cynical, however, and reminds herself that optimism is a force that’s more potent than “any one election, or leader, or news story.”

Michelle has seen optimism throughout her life, particularly in children. She writes that adults owe it to them to stay strong and continue to work towards a more humane world. She thinks about her portrait hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, and how no one looking at her childhood could have ever guessed where she would end up. It matters most to her that young people can see her picture and have a different notion of what one must look like to be considered important.

Michelle concludes by writing, “I’m an ordinary person who found herself on an extraordinary journey.” She has spent her life trying to connect with people and hopes to continue to do so in sharing her story. Lastly, she asks readers to “invite one another in,” to let go of divisive stereotypes and biases, and to embrace the ways in which people are the same. “It’s not about being perfect,” she says, it’s about “where you get yourself in the end.” That is what becoming means to her.