Maybe it's because the past four years alone - let alone 2020 - is a complete blur, but if you asked me where I was during both of Obama's terms as a teenager, on the surface, I'm ashamed to say that I don't remember anything except bits and pieces - the debates, the announcements, the inaugurations, the hard-hitting tragedies and news that would spring up and temporarily press pause on the world. I wasn't as much into politics then as I am now, struggling to deal with a lot of issues at home and never quite feeling like I was important enough to get involved or try to understand what was going on with the big picture. Through the recollection of her life, I was able to piece together where I was during that time, not realizing the gravity of the moment to see the first Black president elected into office, and now understanding what it meant for the trajectory of politics and hope since 2008. I think this what the best memoirs are able to do - put you back into a time and place whether you lived or witnessed those experiences or not, and invite you into all of the other experiences in-between that were lived solely through by the author.

It's hard to forget Michelle's powerful voice after hearing her iconic speeches during the campaign trail, or even interviews promoting this book or the causes she starts and supports, and somehow it feels like she's speaking directly to you - you can hear her voice while even reading a printed copy instead of an audiobook. With her grace of the written word, her tenacity to contribute to the greater good, to being a devoted woman, wife, mother, and human being, she takes you through her life from the childhood she had to working her way through school, becoming a lawyer, meeting Barack Obama, and all of the 'inevitable' decisions and actions that led to them becoming a two term administration. It's brimming with tenacity, wit, empathy, determination, vulnerability, and puts a humanizing picture to the world of politics and even the now iconography of Barack as a president and her as a Former First Lady. She addresses and reveals the fabric of what makes the U.S. and the world full of mind-boggling contradictions - racism, misygony, disinfrachisement, class, power for the elite, etc. and diversity, empowerment, and possibilities - and how both drives her to be defy how we as a society look at each other by the color of our skin, especially Black women, and where we come from, and seem to think that defines where it is we should go and what we can do in our lives. Even though the general role of the First Lady is ornamental in the political realm, and despite the criticism Despite the criticism she and the first family received over their time in and out office, she is the epitome of what a real First Lady should be - her eloquence, the ability to reflect and question if she made mistakes, to strive to make change, to deeply connect with people. Through Michelle, we get to witness what it's like to go through the thick and thin of her own person struggles and achievements, and come out of the side to keep going and keep becoming something more.

Her straight-forward, warm, and no-nonsense made this a page turner, as did her ability to create a timeline that made you want to 'see what happens next', even though it might be easy to remember various events that happened over the course of Obama's terms. Not only is it a poignant read in contrast to what we're going through right now with the current election, but it's a hopeful and emotional read for anyone who just lets her experiences and words sink in to the fullest - and hopefully recognize how much more we can do to help each other along. Every other page makes you want to step up to the plate in your own life because she does. Definitely one of my all-time favorite memoirs.