This post first appeared at Fellowship of the Minds
Michelle Obama…delivering inspiring words
The perpetual victimhood shtick never gets old for some people.
From Daily Mail: Many former students remember having to fend off college jitters at the start of their education—and among them is none other than Michelle Obama, who reminisced about her ‘scary’ experience at Princeton University in a new Instagram post.
The former first lady, 54, shared a photo of herself as a young student on Tuesday, explaining it was taken in the early 1980s at the Ivy League institution. Michelle enrolled in 1981 at the age of 17 before graduating cum laude in 1985 with a B.A. in Sociology.
Trending:
She can be seen in the image posing on campus in a denim jacket and red sweater, carrying a bag on her left shoulder. While Michelle smiles confidently at the camera in the snap, going to college was a frightening experience for her, as she explained in her post.
‘This is me at Princeton in the early 1980s,’ she wrote next to the photo. ‘I know that being a first-generation college student can be scary, because it was scary for me.’
Michelle, the daughter of the late Fraser Robinson, a water purification worker, and Marian Robinson, a former bank secretary, enrolled at Princeton following in the footsteps of her brother, a graduate of the class of 1983. Neither of their parents attended college.
‘I was black and from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago, while Princeton’s student body was generally white and well-to-do,’ Michelle added in her Instagram post.
‘I’d never stood out in a crowd or a classroom because of the color of my skin before.
‘But I found close friends and a mentor who gave me the confidence to be myself. Going to college is hard work, but every day I meet people whose lives have been profoundly changed by education, just as mine was.’
The former first lady, who congratulated the class of 2018 in her message, shared her tips with current students who might also be facing difficulties or feel intimidated, adding: ‘My advice to students is to be brave and stay with it.’
Michelle has been sharing a series of throwback photos on her Instagram account ahead of the release of her memoir, Becoming, which is to be released in November.
On Wednesday, she posted a picture of herself and her husband Barack, 56, on their wedding day in October 1992. She can be seen sitting on a chair during their reception, laughing while Barack removes her garter belt as per tradition.
‘You can’t tell it from this photo, but Barack woke up on our wedding day in October, 1992 with a nasty head cold,’ she wrote in the caption.
‘Somehow, by the time I met him at the altar, it had miraculously disappeared and we ended up dancing almost all night. Twenty five years later, we’re still having fun, while also doing the hard work to build our partnership and support each other as individuals. I can’t imagine going on this wild ride with anybody else.’
On Tuesday, the former first lady posted a photo of herself as a girl with her parents, sharing tributes to each of them. ‘My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word,’ she wrote.
‘My mother, Marian, showed me how to think for myself and to use my voice. Together, in our cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago, my family helped me see the value in our story, in my story, and in the larger story of our country.’
Michelle has opened up in the past about her time as a student, and earlier this month further reminisced on the ‘struggle’ she experience at the start of her undergraduate career at a public event in Philadelphia.
She took to the stage during College Signing Day, which honors Philadelphia students for their pursuit of a college education or career in the military. The event stems from her Reach Higher initiative, which Michelle launched four years ago as first lady in support of education nationwide.
The Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate told the crowd of 7,000 students of her own doubts back when she started her education—and coached them on how to overcome their own insecurities.
