- How do you live a big life and remain grounded
and connected? - Mm.
That's, ooh...
That's a deep, good, very good question.
Because it's not just for people
who are living the stereotypic big life
because no matter how far we've gone,
I still see myself the way you see yourself.
I'm Michelle Robinson. - You do?
- Well, you know, nobody knew who we were
until we were in our 40s.
I mean, who's Barack Obama, you know?
We've spent the majority of our lives
living as a lovely, loving, married couple
on the South Side of Chicago.
We had great jobs.
We got engaged in service.
We had these two little girls.
And then my husband decided to run for president.
And I was like, what is wrong with you?
We have a nice life here.
Why are you gonna snatch it from us?
So what I say about the White House,
the White House doesn't change you, who you are.
It reveals who you are.
And if you were raised to be grounded and humble,
you carry... you practice that.
That is who you are.
And so for me, I was raised on the South Side of Chicago
by Marian and Fraser Robinson.
And they taught us to respect people, to work hard,
to treat each other as we would wanna be treated.
- And you speak about it so incredibly in the book.
I feel like I know your mom and dad from reading the book.
- They're amazing regular people.
- Have you ever been intimidated to cross a room
to go over to someone?
- Absolutely.
- Who was that?
- I talk about this in the chapter where I talk about
what it feels like to be an "only" or "first."
- Yes. - Right?
And there are a lot of people who were in that position.
Sometimes we think about it in terms of race,
in terms of gender.
But you know, if you're a first-generation college student
and you are...
nobody in your family has ever gone to college,
you will be intimidated by sitting in a college classroom
or to raise your hand to ask a question.
- Because you're a "first" or an "only."
- We are all traversing those things.
And like I said, I never tried to allow those moments
to stop me from moving forward.
You have to kind of push past your comfort zone.
And it takes practice, right?
I wasn't always confident walking across the room
but what I had were parents
who told me not to let my fear guide me.
So they continue...
They started pushing me early out of the nest
to try new things.
- [Drew] Walking to school by yourself.
- Walking to the school.
It's the basic things
that a parent can allow their child to do
that starts building confidence.
So I tell the story about me being in kindergarten
and my mother...
We lived around the corner
from our school. - On Euclid Avenue.
- On Euclid Avenue.
Went to the neighborhood public school.
And my mother decided, okay, here's an alarm clock.
It's time for you to wake yourself up.
And you can walk around the corner to school.
And I was like, lady, are you crazy?
I am five-years-old.
I didn't say that,
but that's what was going through my little mind.
But I did it.
And the lesson that I learned from her
is that she had to overcome her fear of letting me go.
And a lot of times as parents,
we hold on tight for too long.
We don't want our kids to experience the fear, that anxiety.
But the one thing that I say
is that if you don't let your kids practice their fear,
they never learn how competent they can be.
So that walk to kindergarten was the first
of many exercises, you know?
Leaving the South Side of Chicago
and going to an Ivy League school
where my college counselor told me
I wasn't Princeton material.
So going to that school was overcoming
a set of hurdles of being a first.
And then being on an Ivy League campus
where you are one of a handful of Black students,
where you're treated as sort of like a novelty.
So the practice of cr...
The act of crossing the room is a practice.
And I have been practicing it my whole life.
So when it was time for me
to walk across that stage with my husband
to stand by him as he took the oath of office,
I was practiced in walking across hard rooms because...
(Michelle laughs)
Get close, girl.
(Drew laughs)
- Okay, so I need to cross the room.
- You have to cross the room, especially if it's me.
- Okay.
- [Michelle Obama] Do it.
(audience applauds)
- By the way, we like to be a little goofy
and silly around here.
Will you play a game with me?
- Yes! - All right.
Because I heard I have some foods
that literally I would rather...
I'd rather eat a shoe or lick a pole
or do anything than put in my mouth.
Is it true you have that, too?
- Oh, yeah.
- What is yours?
- Beets.
- Okay.
- So what does this game have to do with beets?
- There's some beets over there.
- Ugh. - And we could play a game.
- Okay. - To try and win-
- You're really selling it.
- Not putting it in our mouth,
it's called "Who Knew? Don't Spew."
- Okay. - Will you play it with me?
- [Michelle Obama] I'm game.
- Don't go anywhere, we'll be right back.
(mellow music)