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c5d8ed8
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One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.
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success
inspirational
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Michelle Obama |
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0981305
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Since childhood, I'd believed it was important to speak out against bullies while also not stooping to their level. And to be clear, we were now up against a bully, a man who among other things demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for prisoners of war, challenging the dignity of our country with practically his every utterance. I wanted Americans to understand that words matter--that the hateful language they heard coming from their T..
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politics
low
minorities
dignity
bullies
high
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Michelle Obama |
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88ce7b5
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The choice, as he saw it, was this: You give up or you work for change. "What's better for us?" Barack called to the people gathered in the room. "Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we work for the world as it should be?"
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settle
hard-work
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Michelle Obama |
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42717eb
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Barack intrigued me. He was not like anyone I'd dated before, mainly because he seemed so secure. He was openly affectionate. He told me I was beautiful. He made me feel good. To me, he was sort of like a unicorn--unusual to the point of seeming almost unreal. He never talked about material things, like buying a house or a car or even new shoes. His money went largely toward books, which to him were like sacred objects, providing ballast fo..
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reading
books
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Michelle Obama |
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463a9c7
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So many of my friends judged potential mates from the outside in, focusing first on their looks and financial prospects. If it turned out the person they'd chosen wasn't a good communicator or was uncomfortable with being vulnerable, they seemed to think time or marriage vows would fix the problem. But Barack arrived in my life a wholly formed person. From our very first conversation, he'd shown me that he wasn't self-conscious about expres..
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Michelle Obama |
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c35a6ad
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Years later, after I'd met and married my husband--a man who is light-skinned to some and dark-skinned to others, who speaks like an Ivy League-educated black Hawaiian raised by white middle-class Kansans--I'd see this confusion play out on the national stage among whites and blacks alike, the need to situate someone inside his or her ethnicity and the frustration that comes when it can't easily be done. America would bring to Barack Obama ..
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Michelle Obama |
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9a3654f
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an empathic and patient listener, coaxing each of us through the maze of our feelings, separating out our weapons from our wounds. He cautioned us when we got too lawyerly and posited careful questions intended to get us to think hard about why we felt the way we felt. Slowly, over hours of talking, the knot began to loosen. Each time Barack and I left his office, we felt a bit more connected. I began to see that there were ways I could be ..
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Michelle Obama |
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bb4ecb6
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Meeting Nelson Mandela gave me the perspective I needed a couple of years into our White House journey--that real change happens slowly, not just over months and years but over decades and lifetimes.
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Michelle Obama |
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be684a8
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The competition to lead the Review was ferocious every year, involving rigorous vetting and a vote by eighty student editors. Being picked for the position was an enormous achievement for anyone. It turned out that Barack was also the first African American in the publication's 103-year history to be selected--a milestone so huge that it had been written up in the New York Times, accompanied by a photo of Barack, smiling in a scarf and wint..
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Michelle Obama |
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6cb1b35
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Ahora creo que es una de las preguntas mas inutiles que un adulto puede formular a un nino: <>. Como si hacerse mayor tuviera un punto final. Como si en algun momento te convirtieras en algo y ahi se acabara todo.
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Michelle Obama |
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34db8f0
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Am I good enough? Yes, I am.
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Michelle Obama |
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d6b73a6
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Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done.
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inspirational
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Michelle Obama |
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8550764
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Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family's safety at risk. And for this, I'd never forgive him.
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Michelle Obama |
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7fd4ce0
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One day I made note of a New York Times article I'd read that reported widespread fatigue, stress, and unhappiness among American lawyers--most especially female ones. "How depressing," I wrote in my journal."
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Michelle Obama |
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c376503
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Twenty minutes later, I caught sight of Barack across the room, in the grips of what looked to be an endless conversation with the woman, who was doing a large portion of the talking. He shot me a look, implying that he'd like to be rescued. But he was a grown man. I let him rescue himself.
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lol
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Michelle Obama |
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252e4be
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I wanted to believe that there was a guy who'd materialize and become everything to me, who'd be sexy and solid and whose effect would be so immediate and deep that I'd be willing to rearrange my priorities. It just wasn't the guy standing in front of me right now.
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Michelle Obama |
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a008926
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I wanted Americans to understand that words matter--that the hateful language they heard coming from their TVs did not reflect the true spirit of our country and that we could vote against it.
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Michelle Obama |
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83c042d
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puke green being the official color of the 1970s--
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Michelle Obama |
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2e235fd
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When you're First Lady, America shows itself to you in its extremes.
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Michelle Obama |
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b2e1358
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Even white people were recognizing him now.
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Michelle Obama |
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d16c165
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This was not me and never would be. I could be supportive, but I couldn't be a robot.
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Michelle Obama |
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9041d92
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America, our moment is now," Barack said. "Our moment is now."
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Michelle Obama |
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238267b
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There were days, weeks, and months when I hated politics. And there were moments when the beauty of this country and its people so overwhelmed me that I couldn't speak.
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Michelle Obama |
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c16d3af
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It hurts to live after someone has died. It just does. It can hurt to walk down a hallway or a open the fridge. It hurts to put on a pair of socks, to brush your teeth. Food tastes like nothing. Colors go flat. Music hurts, and so do memories. You look at something you'd otherwise find beautiful - a purple sky at sunset or a playground full of kids and it only somehow deepens the loss. Grief is so lonely this way.
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michelle-obama-quotes
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Michelle Obama |
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da49210
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I'd greet him with a playful fist bump onstage at an event in Minnesota, which would then make headlines, interpreted by one Fox commentator as a "terrorist fist jab," again suggesting that we were dangerous."
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Michelle Obama |
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78d4048
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A word now about the bar exam: It's a necessary chore, a rite of passage for any just-hatched lawyer wishing to practice, and though the content and structure of the test itself vary somewhat from state to state, the experience of taking it - a two-day, twelve-hour exam meant to prove your knowledge of everything from contract law to arcane rules about secured transactions - is pretty much universally recognized as hellish.
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Michelle Obama |
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64ae9b0
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She was also deep. It's what I loved most about Santita. Like me, she could be frivolous and goofy when we were with a larger group, but on our own we'd get ponderous and intense, two
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Michelle Obama |
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b3916fb
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It went back to my wishes for them to grow up strong and centered and I accommodating to any form of old-school patriarchy: I didn't want them to ever believe that life 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.
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quotes-to-live-by
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Michelle Obama |
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2cf9c49
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As Americans obsessed over the threat of terrorism, many were overlooking the racism and tribalism that were tearing our nation apart.
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Michelle Obama |
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72fa318
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Marriage, he told me early on, struck him as an unnecessary and overhyped convention.
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Michelle Obama |
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dffbbae
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It hurts to live after someone has died. It just does. It can hurt to walk down a hallway or open the fridge. It hurts to put on a pair of socks, to brush your teeth. Food tastes like nothing. Colors go flat. Music hurts, and so do memories. You look
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Michelle Obama |
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545d32c
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Everyone on earth, they'd tell us, was carrying around an unseen history, and that alone deserved some tolerance.
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Michelle Obama |
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0613dd0
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It was as if he'd surrendered a part of himself as a way of coping.
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Michelle Obama |
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be06d0a
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If I were to start a file on things nobody tells you about until you're right in the thick of them, I might begin with miscarriages. A miscarriage is lonely, painful, and demoralizing almost on a cellular level. When you have one, you will likely mistake it for a personal failure, which it is not. Or a tragedy, which, regardless of how utterly devastating it feels in the moment, it also is not. What nobody tells you is that miscarriage happ..
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Michelle Obama |
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7f62d41
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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.
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empowering-women
just-do-it
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Michelle Obama |
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6053f78
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When voters got to see me as a person, they understood that the caricatures were untrue. I've learned that it's harder to hate up close.
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Michelle Obama |
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298019d
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Optics would always rule our lives.
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Michelle Obama |
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b875276
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When Barack was first elected, various commentators had naively declared that our country was entering a "postracial" era, in which skin color would no longer matter. Here was proof of how wrong they'd been. As Americans obsessed over the threat of terrorism, many were overlooking the racism and tribalism that were tearing our nation apart."
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Michelle Obama |
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b292466
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They're not special at all. The South Side is filled with kids like that.
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Michelle Obama |
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081945a
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Fulfillment, I'm sure, struck her as a rich person's conceit.
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Michelle Obama |
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47f300b
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I just wanted to achieve. Or maybe I didn't want to be dismissed as incapable of achievement.
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Michelle Obama |
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df82bbd
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Inspiration on its own was shallow; you had to back it up with hard work.
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Michelle Obama |
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b958041
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Even if we didn't know the context, we were instructed to remember that context existed.
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Michelle Obama |
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4346e22
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The same sun comes up, but looking slightly different from what you know.
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Michelle Obama |