From humble beginnings in a small upstairs apartment in the South Side of Chicago, to the dorm rooms and pristine campuses of Princeton and Harvard, to the Chicago law office where she met her husband, and finally to the White House where she and her family made history as the first Black First Family, national treasure Michelle Obama has given us an absolute triumph in her groundbreaking and deeply intimate autobiography Becoming, and I will be eternally grateful for what her sharing has inspired in me.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was raised in a lower middle class family in the South Side of Chicago. She learned from her dad grit and determination even in the face of adversity, and from her mom to live and let live. She was raised with a lotta love and a lotta friendship, and it is evident throughout not only her writing but her work during her tenure as First Lady and beyond how important these virtues are to her. Michelle followed her revered older brother Craig off to Princeton and went on to get her law degree at Harvard. Following her education, she returned to Chicago and began practicing law. One fateful summer she was assigned a mentee at her practice—a tall, lanky young man from Hawaii with a strange name. Over time, she would go on to fall in love with Barack Obama for his intelligence and the way he cared so deeply about his work and community. Little did she know at the time that his career trajectory would take the both of them, as well as their two adorable little girls Malia and Sasha, to the White House.

Even as a teenager, rallying with her best friend Santita Jackson for her father Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in the '80s, Michelle knew she wasn't much for politics. She says it best nearing the end of her book—she could not understand how it had to be red or blue, black or white with no nuance, how divisive politics can become and how it can take away from the simple humanity of just seeing one another as people, as human beings. So when her husband floated the idea of running for president, she was vehemently against the idea for quite some time. Eventually she saw it another way; as much as she wanted her husband's full devotion to go to her and to their family they had built together, she understood that he could be the harbinger of real change that—especially back in the mid-aughts—was desperately needed in this country. And so, even though Michelle had since switched from law to public service and loved her job working for the University of Chicago hospitals, the family moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to make history as the first Black First Family in the history of the United States.

During her time as FLOTUS, Michelle Obama leaned into several initiatives. Perhaps her most widely known efforts concern childhood obesity and health, which was a personal issue for her from the time she took her youngest daughter Sasha to a pediatrician and was told to keep an eye on her BMI. She worked with her staff and the greater administration to get kids moving and hold food distributors and chain restaurants nationwide accountable for their role in childhood obesity. While supporting her husband in office, she also accomplished quite a bit herself, and inspired millions of girls and women—especially those of color—across the world in her wake. Following Obama's 8 years in office, Michelle has still been an amplified voice in activism. She went on to write this incredible book detailing her life, and it offers its readers such a high-definition rendering of a really wonderful human being.

What stands out about Becoming is not just Michelle's incredible life story—it's the way she has chosen to tell it. She offers so many intimate details that her audience feels like her closest confidante. From spraying Pine-Sol on the floors so she and her brother could slide further across them, to the chip in the middle C key on her aunt's old piano, to the ice cream cone date she fell in love with Barack over, to what it felt like to become First Lady and all the gains and losses that come with the position, Michelle Obama is a master at showing her story. We may as well have been there with her. I said it before but I'll say it again: this level of detailed writing in a memoir, especially a memoir from such a distinguished public figure, is truly a gift from her to us. I always liked Michelle Obama, but I'm something of a fanatic after reading this book and having her life parsed at such depth for me and her millions of other readers.

I have had my problems with some of Barack Obama's choices while in office, but I have always loved the Obama family as people. To me, they are some of the most authentic figureheads we have seen, especially having occupied the highest office in the nation. To have the crazy orange man and his ice-queen wife and mess of spoiled, snotty children follow this family into the White House is a disgrace that will mar our nation's history for the rest of it, but I am so grateful that once, America elected a Black man into the office of the president, and his wonderful wife followed him. Michelle has arguably held just as much if not more of the spotlight as her husband, and she has truly inspired me so much. And damn, that lady can write! This book is a wonderful example of Black excellence, of women's power, and what believing in yourself and holding yourself to a higher standard can accomplish. Everyone, regardless of political affiliation, would benefit from reading this book. Everyone would benefit from following her famous words: "When they go low, we go high." I wish desperately that I could have read this book in high school, and it will be required reading for my future children when they are that age. Michelle Obama is such an exalting presence who will no doubt continue to do good and inspire millions of girls and women to greatness. I know on my own journey to greatness I will think of her story often, and it will only add to my own becoming.