Becoming by Michelle Obama Book Summary

Buy this book from Amazon

Michelle Obama was not always a lawyer, a working mother or the first lady of the United States. In the 1970s, she was Michelle Robinson, a student on the south side of Chicago who loved Stevie Wonder and jazz music and also wanted to get good grades in school.

Becoming is the story of how Michelle Obama excelled at school and met an up-and-coming lawyer named Barack Obama, who would become her partner in an incredible life. Realizing that she really wanted to help people more than to be involved in the intricacies of contract law, Michelle left her job at a respected law firm to work in the world of nonprofits, community outreach and mentoring.

This understanding of citizenship is what she brought along to the White House, where he strives to influence the health, veterans work and education of the child. Michelle Obama feels fortunate to have strong female role models in her life and has made her part of the work of her life to strengthen the next-generation civilian leaders.

Michelle Robinson had a loving family. Her great aunt taught her how to play the piano.


In 1968, Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention, which caused a violent clash between the police and the Vietnam War protesters. Michelle Robinson’s family lived just 9 miles from the Congress Center in Chicago’s Southern Coast. However, since she was just four years old at the time, she was slack to the turbulent politics of the day and much more interested in playing with her dolls.

Michelle grew up in a loving family, with a brother who was two years older, a father who worked at the water filtration plant, and a mom who was a wiz with a sewing needle and very active in community fundraising and organizations like her local parent-teacher association. Her father also loved jazz and art, and many of Michelle’s earliest memories revolve around the music that was always surrounding her.



On the second floor of a four-story house, her grandmother’s great-aunt and uncle lived on the first floor. Her great-aunt, Robbie, was a piano teacher, so the sound of scales and songs stolen by her students was another musical aspect of his childhood. In addition, Michelle started attending classes with Robbie at the age of four.

Robbie could have been a challenging and frightening task manager, and two of them bumped off during his classes, and Michelle already had quite strong ideas as a teenager. Robbie, however, saved the day Michelle was set to sing his song on the first grand piano recital at the Roosevelt University concert hall.

Robbie’s piano had a chipped middle C key. The middle C is used to help a player position their hands on the piano, so having this little-chipped corner on Robbie’s piano made it easier for Michelle to spot it. On the stage at Roosevelt University, young Michelle knew her song backward and forward, but she was suddenly frozen, unable to spot the middle C.

Fortunately, Robbie was sitting in the front row and knew what to do. When she stepped on to the stage calmly, she reached over her shoulder like a guardian angel and pointed to the middle C. Michelle was now able to start her recital.

As Chicago’s south side changed, Michelle tried to be a good student and felt she was good enough.


Over the years, the South Side of Chicago has undergone a transformation. In 1950 the area was 96 percent white. By 1981, it was 96 percent black. Michelle was born in the middle of this transition, so when she first started in school, there was a mix of different families – some black and white.

But as she grew older, more and more families, both black and white, were started to move to the suburbs, if they had the means to – taking their money with them in the process. As a result, the businesses and schools in the neighborhood began to suffer, until real estate developers eventually started labeling Chicago’s South Side as a “ghetto.”

For Michelle’s family the South was always home and will be, and for over 50 years her mother has been a consistent force to help the community. Michelle’s mother also played an important role in her education; it excused her and made her the best student she could be.

It started in the second grade when she listened to Michelle when she told her she absolutely hated her class since it was full of problematic kids throwing things and a bad teacher with no ability to get it under control. Thanks to her mom, Michelle got tested and moved up to a third-grade class with other high-performing kids who liked to learn. From time to time, Michelle wonders just how important this move was in getting her on the right track to excel in school.



Indeed, Michelle was used to doing well and eventually ended up at Whitney M. Young High School in central Chicago. This school, known as a magnet school, was an equal opportunity school with progressive teachers who attracted high-performance children from all over the city. Michelle had to take an exam to get in, and although she did pass, she had to overcome some early doubts about whether she was really good enough.

Michelle went to school every day for two buses and 90 minutes, while some other children lived in nearby apartments. They talked about their summer internship and carried a designer purse in their arms. Everything they did seemed effortless. However, although Michelle began her high school education with some troubling self-doubt, she focused on the study and soon received good feedback and excellent grades.

It did so much to help her calm down and began to tell herself, yes, she did belong and was good enough.

At Princeton, Michelle entered a whole different world and found a great mentor called Czerny Brasuell.


As a senior at Whitney M. Young High, Michelle held a routine meeting with her university counselor. At that time, she was elected as class advisor, joined the National Honor Society and was on her way to becoming 10 percent of his class. Nevertheless, she was told, “I’m not sure you’re Princeton material.”

A year ago, Michelle’s brother, Craig, a great basketball player, entered Princeton University and thought he could join him. But there was a professional counselor, who basically told him to cut down on his ambitions and think a little less. Fortunately, this meeting did not lose Michelle’s trust and instead only served to distract him, and he continued and went to Princeton.



Of course, Michelle was accepted and reunited with her brother at the university’s unspoiled New Jersey campus. And on her first day there, she couldn’t help but realized how different Princeton was.

To begin with, Michelle felt for the first time what it was like to be one of the people who were not white. It was both shocking and uncomfortable. Less than 9 percent of students were black in Michelle’s first-class class.

Nevertheless, Michelle found a hospitable community in the school – and not only that, she found a great mentor.

Although Princeton was predominantly white, there was also an organization known as the Third World Center (TWC), renamed as Carl A. Fields Equality and Cultural Understanding Center. TWC was there to support colorful students, and one of its leaders was Czerny Brasuell, an energetic, free New Yorker. Michelle immediately turned to Brasuell, a powerful black woman, and working mother.

During her years at Princeton, Michelle became Czerny’s assistant and protest, gaining a series of new life experiences in the process. Czerny suggested that new writers read it, led Michelle to ask important questions, and even led an after-school program for black faculty and staff members.

At Princeton, Michelle studied sociology and began thinking about Harvard Law School for her next step, but she also learned a lot from Czerny about life. Michelle knew she wanted to be a working mother one day, and as a single working mother, Czerny could not be a better example of how this could be done with grace and panache.

After the law school, Michelle met Barack Obama and eventually they fell in love.


Throughout his life, Michelle was on a very strict road. Everything was perfected in her environment and doing what the successful people needed to do. This led Michelle to take the LSAT exam and to go to Harvard Law School from Princeton and never to leave the track and leave for a moment, asking her what he wanted to do.

In 1988, after Harvard, Michelle returned to Chicago, where she joined the esteemed Sidley & Austin.



Unlike Michelle, Barack took a few years of his bachelor’s degree in Columbia to try his hand at various jobs before returning to school at Harvard Law. He was self-confident and self-assured – one of the reasons he left such an impression on everyone he met.

So before she met Barack, Michelle had heard people talk about this stunning young man. His professors at Harvard told him the most gifted student he had ever worked for. But Michelle remained questionable. In her previous experience, she’d seen white professors “go bonkers” over any half-smart black man in a nice suit.

Michelle’s part of the job at Sidley & Austin, promising to meet with law students, was probably trying to join the company and is a graduate advise them when they are available. But meeting Barack was different from the other students she really met. Since he’d taken those years off before Harvard Law, he was a few years older than her, and there didn’t seem to be much advice to give him. In fact, everyone in the firm was eager to get his opinion on whatever they were working on.  

However, they had a lot in common: they knew the South Side neighborhoods in Chicago, where they worked as a community organizer and behaved very similar to an easy relationship that developed rapidly between the two. But even though he was a tall, attractive man with a nice smile and a sexy voice, Michelle didn’t immediately think they were a romantic match- because he was smoking!

However, after proving that she was too cerebral to find out about her friends, she missed her cigarette and accepted her request on a date. And after their first kiss, there was no doubt about your future husband.

Michelle and Barack got married in 1991 and started to engage in new works.


It didn’t take very long for the relationship between Michelle and Barack to get serious. And since she held her brother’s opinion in high regard, she was happy to hear that Craig liked Barack and found him to be a pretty decent basketball player, which was a big plus in Craig’s estimation.

Unfortunately, they had to spend some time with Barack ending at Harvard, where he was the first black editor of the school’s prestigious blog, the Harvard Law Review.

In 1991, Barack joined Michelle in Chicago and the two took the joy of living together.

Many jobs were offered to Barack, but, as with everything else, he was more than concerned with helping a friend build a community workshop more than taking a high-paying concert at a law firm.

Meanwhile, Michelle was thinking a big change in her own career, which was very painful because she devoted a lot of time and lessons to take her to Sidley and Austin. But what he really wanted to do was not to spill contracts on behalf of companies, to help people face to face.

Fortunately, 1991, Michelle also was a year in which the next step to take to help our community and become a lifelong friend of the other influential people who met with Valerie Jarrett in his career.

Like Michelle, Valerie was an unsatisfied lawyer who had left a high-wage job for calling for help. Valerie’s inspiration was Harold Washington, the hero of the black community. Tragically died from a heart attack while sitting at the desk until, as had been the boss of the Chicago mayor governor. Valerie decided to continue working for the mayor and eventually, Richard Daley, Michelle’s current mayor, helped him find work as Jr.’s assistant.



In October 1992 Michelle and Barack got married, but the honeymoon did not last long, because the Barack Project was recruited to help the Game! attempt, Black society more people to register to vote in November elections that year for the use intended Designed as. Barack worked tirelessly, registering only 7,000 people in a week.

Subsequently, in 1993, Michelle was engaged in another initiative called Public Allies. After working several years in City Hall, promising that connects youth with mentors working in the public sector, he has accepted the organization’s Executive Director expanding the non-profit mission.

Thankfully, it attracted a generation of talented individuals to the public sector. It was a job that really resonated with Michelle when she was so impressed by her mentor her life.

After writing his first book, Barack was given a political opportunity. However, Michelle did not want this to happen.


Michelle had seen her husband’s gift for communication in a church basement as he spoke to a small audience of mostly women who were concerned about their community. He begged them to use the power of political engagement: to vote and to reach out to the mayor’s office or their local representative. By the end of the speech, the women were shouting, “Amen!” and Michelle was won over as well. It was obvious he had a gift of being able to reach people and inspire hope in them.

After the Project VOTE! campaign, Chicago magazine had also noticed Barack’s effectiveness. In an article, they suggested that this young fellow should run for office elections. Barack shrugged it off at the time, as he had his own plan to write a book, entitled Dreams from My Father.

The book was important for Barack because it was a way of adapting to an unusual life story. His mother, a white woman, was with a family from Kansas who had married a Kenyan whose father had already married his mother when he had another wife in Kenya. It didn’t take long before her parents married. Finally, her mother met someone else, an Indonesian, a six-year-old Barack, and her mother moved there to live for a while.

Much of Barack’s life spilled across Indonesia and Hawaii, where his mother’s family moved. He also remained close to his relatives in Kenya, even after his father’s death in 1982. Barack took Michelle to see his grandmother Sarah, who lives in a village outside Nairobi.

Dreams from My Father was published in 1995, it had decent reviews but did not sell much. By then, Barack was teaching a class on racism and law at the University of Chicago. And it was that same year when Barack was approached about entering politics.



In the Illinois State Senate, he was about to open a seat – one representing the Hyde Park district where Barack and Michelle lived. However, Michelle was not excited about Barack’s entry into politics. According to him, since Barack was in some stuffy office in the State of Senate, he had more influence as head of a non-profit organization. But Barack believed he had a chance to do really good things, and Michelle wasn’t about to outrun Barack’s ambitions.

As their families grew, Barack’s political career led to his first experience of how his personal life will be.


Although Michelle and Barack have similar sensibilities, there are differences. For example, Barack’s favorite films are dark and serious, and Michelle prefers a good rom-com. And then there are ways to deal with personal attacks that have a career in politics. Barack has an incredible ability to throw punches, while Michelle, with her self-described need to be like, is less able to brush off someone’s hurtful comment.

One of the first political attacks that really affected Michelle was in the middle of the party’s primary campaign against other Democrats Bobby Rush and Donne Trotter to run for a seat in the US House of Representatives.

By this point, the family had grown to include their first daughter, Malia Ann Obama, who was born on the fourth of July, 1998. She was especially precious to them since it had been such a hassle for Michelle to get pregnant, with the couple having to use in vitro fertilization.

Therefore, in 1999 when the family visiting their relatives on vacation were in Hawaii, Malia had a serious ear infection. Conducting it was very scary. But to make matters more difficult, the Illinois Senate announced the urgent vote on a large arms check bill. It became the center of much debate. but Malia he couldn’t fly in his terms, so Barack did what he thought was right, the first to put the family away, even when he came to a project he struggled hard for.



So it was particularly terrifying when Malia got a serious ear infection while the family was in Hawaii, visiting relatives during the holiday break of 1999. But to make matters more difficult, the Illinois Senate announced an emergency vote on a big gun control bill that had been the center of much debate. But Malia couldn’t fly in her condition, so Barack did what he felt was right, which was putting family first, even when it came to a bill that he’d fought hard to pass.

Barack lost the first but continued to serve in the state of the Senate. And then, in June 2001, the second daughter of the family, Natasha Marian Obama came – more known as Sasha.

Michelle was suspicious of politics. However, her attitude changed during Barack’s presidential campaign.


Michelle was not very content as Barack was missing a lot of family dinners thanks to his job as a state senator. So she wasn’t too excited about the prospect of him running for the US Senate.

One of the reasons she gave him the go-ahead was because she secretly doubted he would win! all, he lost a congress principle a long time ago. And Michelle creating a difference and give up politics if he loses it promised to find another way.

But in an ironic transformation of fate, the Republican rival is out of the race! And then, presidential candidate John Kerry of the 2004 Democratic National Convention asked Barack to make an opening statement when he came to use teleprompters, a surprisingly risky move for almost all Americans outside of Illinois and almost unknown to a beginner. to be on television. Therefore, it would be impossible to say that 2004 was a lucky year for Barack, but he felt that a cosmic destiny was at hand that year.

The truth is that Barack was preparing for his DNC speech for most of his life, and that’s why this conversation is so powerful. Yes, he memorized it, but he was speaking from his heart. Michelle’s hearing was not a surprising conversation, because she already knew how amazing her husband was. But now the rest of the nation knew and created a sensation overnight. As the prominent NBC commentator Chris Matthews said, BC I only saw the first black President Chris as he heard the speech.



Of course, Barack began to become a presidential candidate in the next election and there was a change in Michelle’s heart. When Barack announced his candidacy, he was amazed to see the 15,000 people in a bitterly cold news event in Michelle, Illinois – as if Obamas were a rock band or something. Suddenly, she realized that they owed these people the best they could.

Now, Michelle felt the responsibility of showing the Americans who called her husband as a beacon of hope. Now he would have to play a big role in sharing his message and telling his story.

As the First Lady, Michelle tried to give her children a normal childhood.


During the campaign, Barack Obama received a Secret Service security detail earlier than any candidate in history because of serious threats to him. However, the life in the White House had another level of protection and was not always appreciated by Michelle, although he understood that the protocols and measures should keep his family safe.

When Barack won the elections, he seemed to be being thrown into an alternative universe, where the simplest things could require dozens of people’s efforts.

Michelle and Barack had lost their privacy and autonomy, but Michelle was determined to do the normal thing for her children. Of course, it was easier than telling.



They found a nice school – Chelsea Clinton Sidwell Friends School is a famous Quaker educational institution. In fact, Hillary Clinton was polite enough to be polite enough to pass on Michelle, some of the wisdom she’d received as the First Lady for eight years, shortly after the move to Obamas.

Of course, this didn’t help a lot because it didn’t have a guide book to be the First Lady and it certainly wasn’t one either because the White House would be a responsible mother of two teenage girls while living in the bubble in the 132-chamber.

Out of the first things Michelle did was to make sure that Sasha and Malia comprehended that, despite its unusual environment and regal trappings, the White House was their home. Therefore, it was not unusual for them to play around in the hallways and rummage for snacks in the pantry.

Michelle also made it a priority to find a reliable system to allow her friends to visit. One of the realities of life at the White House was that all visitors had to get Social Security numbers by the authorities before they entered. Therefore, if Obama’s children were friends, it was impossible for girls to spontaneously go to a local ice cream shop.

All the rules and restrictions of the White House can make it strange for children living there. However, at the beginning of their stay, Michelle, Sasha, and Malia they took a large tray from the kitchen and used it for slipping on a snow-covered hillside on South Cement was a relief to see.

Michelle tried to find her own voice with projects like Let’s Move! Initiative as well.


One of the great things about living in the White House was that Barack no longer had to go a long day. The Oval Office was literally below where they lived! For this reason, becoming President meant that Barack would be ready for dinner more than his time as a state and US senator.

As for Michelle’s role as First Lady, she was determined to use her position to a great extent and to do something to talk about who she is and what she believes in. Hillary Clinton talked about the potential dangers of too much involvement in government. Agenda. He has been criticized for wanting to use his experience as a lawyer to help determine healthcare experience and other policies. According to his experience, the people believed that the First Lady should not act as an elected official.

For this reason, Michelle, while conducting her own policies, paid attention to initiate initiatives that could complement the policies of the administration.



One of Michelle’s first efforts was to start a garden in the White House; this was another way to make the White House feel more like a house than a castle. But it was also about avoiding processed foods in favor of healthy eating and fresh foods. It was the heart of Michelle ‘s Let’s Move! A three-year-old boy who has tripled over the past 30 years and is a serious condition that causes one to become obese or overweight. initiative.

Michelle and her team worked hard at Let’s Move! containing four major steps platform. The first was to inform parents about healthy eating options. The second was to make food in schools healthier. The third was to find ways to bring healthy food to many rural and urban areas without fresh fruits and production. The fourth was to make the children more active.

As in the garden, let’s go! successful from the very beginning proved to be. Ten weeks later, the first harvest of the garden immediately produced 90 kilos of products in the White House. And Let’s Move! After the release of flour, school lunch suppliers promised to reduce salt and sugar, the American Beverage Association decided to create clearer content labels, and large television stations agreed to publish public service announcements in children’s programs.

There were hardships and struggles along the way, but Michelle Obama takes pride in what she has done at the White House.


The second period when Barack began as President, the family had adapted to the protocols of the White House. For example, Barack and Michelle learned that during the first term they would no longer be able to make an appointment, they couldn’t play dinner and Broadway play in a nice restaurant. He put a lot of negative pressure on him, brought the presidential car’s traffic to a standstill, and people in the restaurant and theater had to be safely checked in after they arrived – which made Michelle feel very bad about himself.



But if she was angry with them for wanting to spend the night, Michelle got angry because she was telling stories that lie about the birthplace of the press and helped spread ugly rumors by imitating her birth certificate and the cuttings of related Hawaii newspapers. These claims were not only offensive; they also confused a dangerous element in Barack’s threatening population.

These rumors were in existence since the first presidential campaign, but they reappeared in the winter of 2011. A few weeks later, an armed man opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at the White House’s settlement. Several months before repairs were made, there was a huge pit in Michelle’s bulletproof window in the room where she often sat down to read. He reminded us why all protocols and security procedures exist.

When we look back, Michelle is proud of what she was able to accomplish through this. At the start, she still had that nagging voice that wondered if she was really good enough. But once again, she could gain the confidence to say, “Yes, I am.”

Come along with Move! 45 million children brought healthy school lunches and associated school programs enrolled 11 million children in the program, also helped 1.5 million veterans and their spouses did not attempt to co-operate to get their jobs. In the meantime, the Initiative for Girls Learning initiative has earned billions of dollars to enable girls across the globe to gain access to schools as well as their empowerment.

But Michelle is really proud that she and her husband were able to raise two amazing daughters. Malia graduated from Sidwell Friends School during their last year in the White House, and the family stayed in Washington after Barack’s presidency ended so that Sasha could also graduate alongside the friends she made over the past eight years.

By the way, Michelle still hates politics and doesn’t have any intention to go into any office.

Becoming by Michelle Obama Book Review


Michelle Obama’s life, a student, a professional, a mother and a First Lady was scrambling to perfect. Along the way, she learned to understand who she was as an individual and what he wanted to do with his life, rather than trying to fulfill a predetermined expectation. Michelle became her own independent woman – a working mother who could help people in her community as well as her children. And since it only comes to a certain point in life, it doesn’t mean that it will never stop helping others.

Buy this book from Amazon



Download Pdf


https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/goodbooksummary/Becoming+by+Michelle+Obama+Book+Summary.pdf

Download Epub


https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/goodbooksummary/Becoming+by+Michelle+Obama+Book+Summary.epub

Audiobook


Savaş Ateş

I'm a software engineer. I like reading books and writing summaries. I like to play soccer too :) Good Reads Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/106467014-sava-ate

Recent Posts