Women’s History Month Spotlight-Michelle Obama
Today is Int
ernational Women’s Day and I want to take the time to focus on former Flotus Michelle Obama. History was made twice in Novemer 2007 first when Barack Obama, an African-American became our 44th president of the United States and the first man of color to hold this position and second when his beautiful, intelligent and highly educationed wife Michelle became our first African-American First Lady. When I first saw Michelle I was in awe. Never did I think I would see in my lifetime a First Lady with deep brown skin like mine who would be live in the White House. I was not alone in my awe of her as her autobiography, Becoming proved to be an instant New York Times bestselling with more than 100,000 reviews on Amazon (even outselling her husband’s memoirs.) She continues to be an enigma however after reading Becoming I learned so much about her. I continue to be inspired by her strength and what she and her ancestors overcame understanding that Michelle forebearers similiar to my own were brought here as slaves.
Beauty may only run skin deep however this Michelle Obama has a wealth of other tools that I so admired. She loved her husband and daughters and stuck by them provideing support and a sense of normacy while they were living under the intense scrutiny of public life. One of her key initiatives was fitness and healthy eating and she stood up for underserved children to help them get access to better nutrition. She started the White House garden and brought in children who did not come from connected or rich families to visit. The extra produce was shared with charity.
Who can forgt when she danced who on television to encourage us all to exercise? Her intiatives motivated millions of people to become more physical fit and to eat locally grown food. I was one of those people and started a free dance program that is open to the community. Why We Dance has served hundreds of people, mainly children over its 13 years of existence with the supports of thousands of dollars in grants from the Union County HEART grant.
Michelle taught us all had to be more kind, grateful, and tolerant. She is unofficially named hugger-in-chief because she likes to hug people. I learned from reading Becoming that she had many of the same struggles as the rest of us. She had to work out issues in her relationships, time management, and her feelings self-doubt when people criticized her. I enjoyed reading her book because Michelle Obama is so real and transparent. She invites readers to come in and get comfortable as she shares her own lessons learned.
There are so many incredible women out there and i will be sharing more about this through Women’s History Month. What woman do you admire?
Candace Waller is the author of, What Goes Around Comes Around the sequel Good Things Comes, and the upcoming book Lessons I Learned From Loving You, A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Healing.