When you hear the name Michelle Obama what comes to mind? For me, two things – one, the wife of my ‘relative’ (IYKYK) and two, a powerhouse.
A thousand years after its release, I finally got myself to read the book “Becoming”. The question that was on my mind as I picked this book was, “What story does she have?” Like many books I have read, there is always a story. With this one, I was curious to know if there was one.
As Michelle shares her journey of becoming more than what you know her to be. The things that stood out to me were things I’ve always admired about her – her strength of character and her grace in the face of adversity. These were tested on more than one occasion, considering the position she held for close to a decade.
In the book, she openly talks about grief, failing and changing jobs to find a career she loved.
Michelle wrote in the moment, as she saw and felt and discovered — as events were occurring. Even though we all know that she and Barack Obama ended up getting married and having two kids, that he won the 2008 elections and that they made it to the White House, she never takes any of it for granted.
On the contrary, her tone is one of wonderment as to how this all happened. This gives the book’s first half of the part of her life we know little about, an unexpected suspense. She writes with the same confidence we have come to recognize from her campaign speeches, looking back at her youth from within the aspiring heart of a daughter of South Side Chicago. Over and over, from high school to the White House, she asks, “Am I good enough?”
This resonated with me so much because, so many times, I have been in a position where I am sometimes the youngest, the first, or different. I have wondered time and time again whether I am good enough. Safe to say, it is a question that many ask themselves 😊.
This book was released after the new president Donald Trump had been elected into office. Michelle’s dislike of him is evident in the book every time she speaks about him. She believed him to be a “misogynist” whose racist rhetoric put her “family’s safety at risk.” She also feared the impact of his recklessness in the country. Despite this, she ends the book hopefully.
There is a quote by Brandon Sanderson – “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” This is one book that does just that.
It’s a captivating, compelling, & all-around exceptional memoir by an all-round phenomenal woman that makes you think and hope and not settle for the world as it is but inspires you to work for it as it should be.
This is a book that you should read!
