I recently watched Michell Obama’s Documentary on Netflix. She is an incredible woman and the film was profoundly moving but there was one line that stood out to me. The line came from Mrs. Obama describing her last day in the White House. A friend asked (and Im Paraphrasing), “Aren’t you going to miss all this?” . To Which Mrs. Obama Responded, “Im so happy to not have to be so Perfect ALL the Time”.
While the context of this quote is tough to decipher without you seeing the doc, I will say that her reasoning is two fold.
1. Being the First Lady is hard. All the worlds eyes are on you, from the words you say to the shoes you wear.
2. Being the First Black First Family was the most incredibly difficult job in American Culture… A place where not only the eyes of the people were on you, waiting to criticize every slip up… But also a place where every misstep or difficult decision was weighed with a sense of devaluation, for you and for your race.