First lady Michelle Obama took her inspirational family story on the road over the weekend, telling the graduating class of Oregon State University that having a corner corporate office and a big paycheck isn’t the prize it looks like when entering the job market.
“Success isn’t about how your life looks to others, it’s about how it feels to you,” Obama said Sunday, retelling how she and her brother, Oregon men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson, grew up in a small Chicago home pushed by parents who said “be true to ourselves.”
For both, she said, that meant throwing away their corporate suits and trying something different after realizing what they thought was the American dream.
“After graduating from college, we did everything we thought we should do to be successful -- Craig went to business school, I went to law school, we got prestigious jobs at an investment bank and me at a law firm. We soon had all the traditional markers of success: the fat paycheck, the fancy office, the impressive lines on our resumés. But the truth is, neither of us was all that fulfilled,” said Obama. “I was living the dream, but it wasn’t my dream. And Craig felt the same way, unbeknownst to me.”
So they quit; she went to work in the Chicago mayor’s office and her brother became a basketball coach. “A successful career alone does not make for a rich life. As you’ve all learned from the friends you’ve made and the relationships you’ve formed here at OSU, what makes life truly rich are the people you share it with,” encouraged the first lady.
“Success isn’t about how your life looks to others, it’s about how it feels to you,” Obama said Sunday, retelling how she and her brother, Oregon men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson, grew up in a small Chicago home pushed by parents who said “be true to ourselves.”
For both, she said, that meant throwing away their corporate suits and trying something different after realizing what they thought was the American dream.
“After graduating from college, we did everything we thought we should do to be successful -- Craig went to business school, I went to law school, we got prestigious jobs at an investment bank and me at a law firm. We soon had all the traditional markers of success: the fat paycheck, the fancy office, the impressive lines on our resumés. But the truth is, neither of us was all that fulfilled,” said Obama. “I was living the dream, but it wasn’t my dream. And Craig felt the same way, unbeknownst to me.”
So they quit; she went to work in the Chicago mayor’s office and her brother became a basketball coach. “A successful career alone does not make for a rich life. As you’ve all learned from the friends you’ve made and the relationships you’ve formed here at OSU, what makes life truly rich are the people you share it with,” encouraged the first lady.
