Becoming is Michelle Obama’s memoir, published in 2018. Per Wikipedia,
“The book’s 24 chapters (plus a preface and epilogue) are divided into three sections: Becoming Me, Becoming Us, and Becoming More. Become Me traces Obama’s early life growing up on the South Side of Chicago, through her education at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, to her early career as a lawyer at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met Barack Obama. Becoming Us departs from the beginning of their romantic relationship and follows their marriage, the beginning of his political career in the Illinois State Senate. The section ends with election night in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and Becoming More describes their life as First Family.“
Here’s a list of my favorite quotes:
On p7
“Robbie and Terry were older. They grew up in a different era, with different concerns. They’d seen things our parents hadn’t - things that Craig and I, in our raucous childishness, couldn’t begin to guess. This was some version of what my mother would say if we got too wound up about the grouchiness downstairs. Even if we didn’t know the context we were instructed to remember that context existed. Everyone on they’d tell us, was carrying around an unseen history, and that deserved some tolerance.”
and on p23
“…reinforcing the possibility - something that had long been a credo of my dad’s - that most people were good people if you just treated them well.”
and on p41
“Everyone seemed to fit in, except for me. I look back on the discomfort of that moment now and recognize the more universal challenge of squaring who you are with where you come from and where you want to go. I also realize that I was a long way, still, from finding my voice.”
and
“Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result. It’s vulnerability that breeds with self-doubt and then is escalated, often deliberately, by fear.”
and on p77
“You don’t really know how attached you are until you move away, until you’ve experienced what it means to be dislodged, a cork floating on the ocean of another place.”
and on p91
“This may be the fundamental problem with caring a lot about what others think: It can put you on the established path - the my-isn’t-that-impressive path - and keep you there for a long time. Maybe it stops you from swerving, from ever even considering a swerve, because what you risk losing in terms of other people’s high regard can feel too costly.”
and on p207
“When it came to the home-for-dinner dilemma, I installed new boundaries, ones that worked better for me and the girls. We made our schedule and stuck to it. Dinner each night was at 6:30. Baths were at 7:00, followed by books, cuddling, and lights-out at 8:00 sharp. The routine was ironclad, which put the weight of responsibility on Barack to either make it on time or not. For me, this made so much more sense than holding off dinner or having the girls wait up sleepily for a hug. It went back to my wishes for them to grow up strong and centered and also unaccommodating to any form of old-school patriarchy: I didn’t want them ever to believe that live began when the man of the house arrived home. We didn’t wait for Dad. It was his job now to catch up with us.”
and on p267
“What did I see? I saw myself speaking with intensity and conviction and never letting up. I always addressed the tough times many Americans were facing, as well as the inequities within our schools and our health-care system. My face reflected the seriousness of what I believed was at stake, how important the choice that lay before our nation really was.
But it was too serious, too severe - at least given what people were conditioned to expect from a woman. I saw my expression as a stranger my perceive it, especially if it was framed with an unflattering message. I could see how opposition had managed to dice up these images and feed me to the public as some sort of pissed-off harpy. It was, of course, another stereotype, another trap. The easiest way to disregard a women’s voice is to package her as a scold.”
and on p285
“If you don’t get out there and define yourself, you’ll be quickly and inaccurately defined by others. I wasn’t interested in slotting myself into a passive role, waiting for Barack’s team to give me direction. After coming through the crucible of the last year, I knew that I would never allow myself to get that banged up again.”
and on p313
“When I was a girl, I had vague ideas about how my life could be better. I’d go over to play at the Gore sisters’ house and envy their space - the fact that their family had a whole house to themselves. I thought that it would mean something if my family could afford a nicer car. I couldn’t help but notice who among my friends had more bracelets or Barbies than I did, or who got to buy their clothes at the mall instead of having a mom who sewed everything on the cheap using Butterick patterns at home. As a kid, you learn to measure long before you understand the size or value. Eventually, if you’re lucky, you learn that you’ve been measuring all wrong.”
and on p377
“What a lot of people don’t know is that the president sees almost everything, or is at least privy to basically any available information related to the country’s well-being. Being a fact-guy, Barack always asked for more rather than less. He tried to gather both the widest and most close-up view of every situation, even when it was bad, so that he could offer a truly informed response. As he saw it, it was part of his responsibility, what he’d been elected to do - to look rather than to look away, to stay upright when the rest of us felt ready to fall down.”