M

journey. I wouldn’t have the luxury of settling into my new role slowly before
being judged. And when it came to judgment, I was as vulnerable as ever to the
unfounded fears and racial stereotypes that lay just beneath the surface of the
public consciousness, ready to be stirred up by rumor and innuendo.

I was humbled and excited to be First Lady, but not for one second did I
think I’d be sliding into some glamorous, easy role. Nobody who has the words
“first” and “black” attached to them ever would. I stood at the foot of the
mountain, knowing I’d need to climb my way into favor.

For me, it revived an old internal call-and-response, one that tracked all the
way back to high school, when I’d shown up at Whitney Young and found
myself suddenly gripped by doubt. Confidence, I’d learned then, sometimes
needs to be called from within. I’ve repeated the same words to myself many
times now, through many climbs.

Am I good enough? Yes I am.
The seventy-six days between election and inauguration felt like a critical
time to start setting the tone for the kind of First Lady I wanted to be. After all
I’d done to lever myself out of corporate law and into more meaningful
community-minded work, I knew I’d be happiest if I could engage actively and
work toward achieving measurable results. I intended to make good on the
promises I’d made to the military spouses I’d met while campaigning—to help
share their stories and find ways to support them. And then there were my ideas
for planting a garden and looking to improve children’s health and nutrition on a
larger scale.

I didn’t want to go about any of it casually. I intended to arrive at the White
House with a carefully thought-out strategy and a strong team backing me. If I’d
learned anything from the ugliness of the campaign, from the myriad ways people
had sought to write me off as angry or unbecoming, it was that public judgment
sweeps in to fill any void. 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.

y   mind    raced   with    all that    needed  to  get done.   There   had been    no  way to