First Lady: ‘I Could Take Up A Whole Afternoon Talking About’ Obama’s Failures

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obama2First lady Michelle Obama has some advice for some Tennessee high school graduates: Strike your own path in college and life and work to overcome inevitable failures with determination and grit.

Mrs. Obama spoke for 22 minutes to the graduates of Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet High School in her only high school commencement address this year. The ceremony took place in the gymnasium of nearby Tennessee State University.

The first lady told the 170 graduates that she spent too much of her own time in college focusing on academic achievements. While her success in college and law school led to a high-profile job, she said, she ended up leaving to focus on public service.

“My message to all of you today is this: Do not waste a minute living someone else’s dream,” she said. “It takes a lot of real work to discover what brings you joy … and you won’t find what you love simply by checking boxes or padding your GPA.”

Mrs. Obama lauded the school – it’s on the site of one of the city’s first to educate African-Americans – for its graduation rate, spirit of volunteerism and healthy food programs. She noted that each graduate was going on to either higher education or the military.

She said MLK reminded her of her own high school experience in Chicago.

“My No. 1 goal was to go to a high school that would push me and challenge me,” she said. “I wanted to go somewhere that would celebrate achievement. A place where academic success wouldn’t make me a target of teasing or bullying, but instead would be a badge of honor.”

But Mrs. Obama lamented that not all students have the same opportunities.

The first lady told graduates that failure may be a part of their college lives and careers, and that how they respond to any pitfalls will define them.

“That’s when you find out what you’re really made of in those hard times,” she said. “But you can only do that if you’re willing to put yourself in a position where you might fail.”

Overcoming adversity has been the hallmark of many great people, she said.

“Oprah was demoted from her first job as a news anchor, and now she doesn’t even need a last name,” she said of media giant Oprah Winfrey. “And then there’s this guy Barack Obama … he lost his first race for Congress, and now he gets to call himself my husband.”

The first lady joked: “I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures.”

Mrs. Obama later presented graduate diplomas on stage and posed for photos with graduates.

“We didn’t know we would get to hug her,” said graduate Natey Kinzounza, 18. “She’s got a great sense of humor. She’s like my mom, she’s just a very real person.”

Read more at CBS CHARLOTTE

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


6 COMMENTS

  1. Wow amazing! The picture you posted of Michelle, looks so much like her husband! They say being married a number of years, spouses start looking like each other.

  2. The problem is Michelle is the most immodest “first Lady” in the History of the United States! She thinks she’s “hip”
    Even the most Liberal Presidents like Carter & Clinton, had wifes who dressed with dignity. Michelle is a disgrace!

  3. Oh wow! They do have a great sense of humor and self-irony. Problem is, that might make them pleasant people to go to dinner with (I don’t know for sure as I have never met either of them personally) but governing a country, and even more so governing the USA, requires other skills and other character traits that the President is not excelling as much at.

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