Michelle Obama: "The White House Doesn't Change You, it Reveals Who You Are" | Drew Barrymore Show

how do you live a big life and remain grounded and connected that's oh that's a deep good very good question because it's not just for people who are living the stereotypic big life um because no matter how far we've gone I still see myself the way you see yourself I'm Michelle do Robinson what you know nobody who knew who we were until we were in our 40s I mean who is 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 um 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 you carry you practice that that is who you are um and so for me I was raised on the south side of Chicago by Marion Frazier Robinson and they taught us to respect people to work hard to treat each other as we would want to 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 are amazing regular people have you ever been intimidated to cross a room to go over to someone absolutely who was that I I talk about this in the chapter where I talk about what it feels like to be and 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 your 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 and only we are all traversing those things and like I said I never try to allow those moments to stop me from moving forward um 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 they started pushing me early out of the nest to try new things walking to school by yourself 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 in around the the corner from our school on Euclid Avenue I 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 I was like a lady are you crazy I am five years old I didn't say that but that's what was going through my little mind um 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 folk practice Their Fear they never learn how competent they can be so that walk to kindergarten was the first of many uh 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're 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 get close girl okay so I need to cross the room you have to cross the room especially if it's me okay do it we like to be a little uh Goofy and silly around here will you play a game with me yes yes I've 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 Beats there's some beets over there and we could play a game okay to try and win really selling it not putting it in our mouth it's called who knew don't spew okay don't go anywhere we'll be right back [Music] foreign

Channel: The Drew Barrymore Show

Views: 161,961

Keywords: drew barrymore, drew barrymore show, drew barrymore talk show, drew show, drew, interview, drew barrymore films, drew barrymore e.t., drew barrymore news, drew barrymore career, talk show, michelle obama, michelle obama interview, michelle obama podcast, michelle obama drew barrymore, michelle obama book, michelle obama tv show

Id: 5iJAE9Utovg

Length: 5min 43sec (343 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2023