MICHELLE OBAMA: exclusive extract from the former First Lady’s guide to life
The Harvard graduate, mother of two and former US first lady has written a guided journal on how to find, or rediscover, your path in life. In an exclusive extract, she shares the 31 questions we should all ask ourselves.
A
fter my memoir Becoming
was a similar published, reaction I heard from a lot of people – strangers, friends and family alike. They said, “I just can’t believe you remembered that much.” It’s a comment that usually gave me a bit of a chuckle, because when I think back to the process of reflecting for my memoir, what I remember most is the feeling of grasping at the memories that were just out of my reach. What was her name? Did after I that make talk that with decision Barack? before Which or state was that campaign event in?
I’d only kept a journal for a short period of my life, for a couple of years during my late twenties as I was getting more serious with Barack and contemplating a new career. It was a tumultuous time filled with change, and I found dedicating time to writing down my thoughts helped me navigate all the transitions. Then I put it away and didn’t pick it up again until I began writing my memoir. Instantly I was transported back to that earlier version of myself, with all the warmth, heartbreak and frustration flooding in.
The experience left me asking myself, “Why didn’t I journal more?” The answer, like for so many of you,
I’m sure, was that I simply got busy. I switched careers. I got married.
I had children. Somewhere along the line I ended up in ballgowns at the White House, however that happened.
Looking back, I wish I’d taken more time to write down what I was thinking and feeling. I didn’t journal much because I talked myself out of it – journalling can feel a little intimidating and layered with implication, the idea being that once you put pen to paper, your thoughts have extra weight and meaning.
This isn’t an exercise to sugar-coat your experiences, or write down something different to what you actually feel, or try to will yourself toward some perfect outcome. You don’t have to journal every day, and you certainly don’t have to feel like you have anything important to say. One of my favourite entries recounted an otherwise uneventful night at a neighbourhood restaurant where an old man punched the perfect playlist into a jukebox.
The beauty of life is that an experience you have today might feel totally different after a few months, or years, or decades. We don’t have to remember everything. But everything we remember has value.