First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey Hold a Conversation on the Next Generation of Women

Hi, everybody. We are here for the United State of Women. Now, I know you all have had a busy packed full day. Very inspiring, right? And hopefully our conversation will live up to the hype. But before we begin, of course, I want to take a moment to just acknowledge what has happened in Orlando. That even as we gather here today and we talk about the challenges that women face, we have to remember those that we lost in Orlando, as well as those who were injured and all of their loved ones. And know that we will all continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. But the one thing I just want us all to know that is tragic times like these in this country, it's time for us to come together, to love each other, to support each other and not tear each other down. So I hope that that is one of the many takeaways that we we move forward with. And I just love you all for the work, the amazing work you all have done today and that you do every single day. So I'm going to turn it over to Oprah. Hello. We have Oprah Winfrey here and our first lady. I of the United States, not of America, of America, not just of women. Yes. So I think that the fact that I've been watching this being streamed all day and the fact that there are men here, women here of all ages, young women, maturing women and all walks of life is a move in the right direction. Would you not say? Absolutely. I'm just proud of all the work that's been done here. So I agree. I agree. Well, I wanted to start with the issue of self-value and self-worth, because over the years, I've interviewed thousands of people, most of them women. And I would say that the root of every dysfunction I've ever encountered, every problem has been some sense of a lacking of self-value or of self-worth. And I know that we all we all know that we live in a world where you are constantly being bombarded by images that encourage you to be liked literally. And it's a lot to live up to. And I wonder, particularly you, who've had to face this as your own woman and as a candidate's wife, the pressure of other people's expectations. And what can you share with our audience here and online that would help us stand more inside ourselves and own that space? Very good question. Well, you know, one of the things that I always I tell my mentees, I tell my daughters is that our first job in life is women, I think, is to get to know ourselves. And I think a lot of times we don't do that. We spend our time pleasing, satisfying, looking out into the world to define who we are, listening to the messages, the images, the limited definitions that people have of who we are. And that's true for women of color, for sure. There is a limited box that we are put in. Yeah. And if we live by that limited definition, we we miss out on a lot of who we are. But it it takes it takes taking the time to know who you are, to be able to deal with the onslaught of negative messages that you're bound to get. So for me, I came into this with a pretty clear sense of myself. And some of that comes with age. Some of that comes with experience. Some some of that comes from being fortunate enough to have been raised by a loving mother, strong, focused and a father who loved me dearly. So I fortunately came into this situation with a really clear sense of who I was. So when you hear the smack talking from outside the world, it's easy to sort of brush that off because I know who I am. You know, but when you came in, there were the world's expectations. There were other expectations. What did you really expect? You know, it's interesting. I really tried not to limit myself by expectations, right? Because nobody grows up thinking I'm going to be a first. Absolutely not. Yeah. You know, and as you all know, when Barack was talking about running, I was like, are you crazy? I mean, would you just like chill out and do something else with with your life? So I was working hard to try to get him to do the other thing. So whatever that was. So, yeah, absolutely. It wasn't something that I could have planned for, could have expected for myself. But one of the things I knew because people asked all throughout the campaign, what are your issues are going to be? What are you going to be like as first lady? And I said, I have to wait until I get there to figure out what that's going to feel like for me. Right. I I specifically did not read other first ladies books because I didn't want to be influenced by how they define the role. I knew that I would have to find this role very uniquely and specifically to me and who I was. So I came in thinking about who I wanted to be in this position and who I needed to be for my girls, first of all. So you remember, you know, Malia and Sasha were little itty bitties when we came in the office. I mean, it still moves me to tears to think about the first day I put them in the car with their Secret Service agents to go to their first day of school. And I saw them leaving and I thought, what on earth am I doing to these babies? So I knew right then and there, my first job was to make sure they were going to be whole and normal and cared for in the midst of all this craziness. And then I started to understand that if I was going to protect them, I had to, number one, protect myself and protect my time. So I knew going into this role that I didn't want to waste any time, that any time I spent away from my kids and I actually took this on even before I became first lady, even as a lawyer, as a vice president at a hospital. One of the things I realized is that if you do not take control over your time in your life, other people will gobble it up. If you don't prioritize yourself, you constantly start falling lower and lower on your list. Your kids fall lower and lower on your list. So by the time you got here, you knew how to do that. I knew how to do that. I think that's one of the number one issues with women. You know, I never in all my years of interviewing, I've ever heard a man say, you know, I just don't have the time. I just don't. I don't find a way to balance. Because they don't have to balance anything. Yes. Sorry. You know, and I hope that that is changing, but so many men don't have to do it all. So how did you figure it out? You know, I've read the story. I'm sure many of you've heard the story of early on. You were going to a job interview and you took Sasha with you to interview. Yeah. We never heard. Did you get that job? I did. I did. I was the vice president of community outreach for the University of Chicago Hospital. And I got that job because I didn't compromise because before getting working at that job, I was working as an associate dean. I had had Malia. Barack was in the U.S. Senate. So I was basically, you know, mothering part time on my own. Having I had a full time job, so I tried part time. I've talked about this before. I tried part time because I thought I have to figure this out. I have to be able to pick the kids up. I've got to be able to do all this. So try part time. So only thing I found out from part time was that you just get paid part time because I was still doing a full time job. I was just cramming it all in to the few hours that I was there and driving myself crazy. So I vowed that if I continued to work, that I would never settle for part time. I knew what my time and energy was worth. So when I went into that the president's office to interview for that job, I thought I have a little baby. I don't have babysitting. So here we go. We're all going to go in to see the president because this is who I am. Yeah. And I said, and if I take this job, I need flexibility and I need full pay. So if you want me to leave my baby and my kids, then you're going to have to pay me because I'm going to do the job. That was never a question. You know, I could deliver. But I wasn't I knew then I wasn't going to sell myself short. And I had the leverage at the time to make that decision. Well, that comes from a sense of and you said you arrived here knowing who you were. I think that is the journey. That is the journey. And there is a question from Farm Fresh Gal. Farm Fresh Gal. She must have her own garden. Oh, like we do. Yes. And Farm Fresh Gal says, as a woman leader in the corporate world, I feel like I have to be brave a lot. And what you just described was brave. Any advice or tips on bravery? You know, that's a that's a good question. Gosh, I don't know if I ever I don't ever view it as bravery. Yeah. You didn't think that was brave saying, look, I'm going to be paid full time. Right. I just I just viewed it as I'm not going to be taken advantage of. You know, I just I am just not going to keep. You knew your value. That's you knew your value. I was just saying that to a friend recently. And that goes back to knowing who you are. And I think as women and young girls, we have to invest that time in getting to understand who we are and liking who we are. Because I like me. I've liked me for a very long time. So for a long time, I've had a very good relationship with myself. I know. And we like we all like ourselves in here, but you got to work to get to that place. And if you're going out into the world as a professional and you don't know who you are, you don't know what you want, you don't know how much you're worth, then you have to be brave. And then you have to you know, you have to count on the kindness and goodness of others to bestow that goodness on you when you should be working to get it on your own because you deserve it. Because you know your own value. Know your own value. OK, so when you're saying I know who I am and I'm telling you, it's the thread that runs through everything. It's the thing that allows you to stand in your own truth. And one of the things for years that Maya Angelou used to say to me is, baby, you need to know that you alone are enough. You alone are enough. So how do we get there? You were there. You've loved yourself a long time. What is that process? I think it's different for everyone. And I can't say that, you know, I've loved myself for a long time, but there was a journey to get there. And, you know, some of it starts as a young, young girl. When you, you know, confront your first bully, the first time somebody calls you out your name, as we would say, you know, the first disappointments and failures that you have. How do you deal with that? What support systems do you set up for yourself? I always tell young girls, surround yourself with goodness. You know, I learned early on how to, you know, get the haters out of my life. You know, you've got to just sort of surround yourself with people who uplift you, who hold you up. And for whatever reason. Well, I was lucky I had people like I had parents who held me up. Yeah, I had a father. They have good parents are right. They come into the world with a strength. Yes. And an advantage. And that was an advantage. But if you don't have that parent, that mother, that father, then you got to find it. You got to find those people because they're out there. I tell my mentees all of there. There is somebody out there who loves you and who is waiting to love you. And you just have to find them. And that means you have to make room for them. And if you're surrounded by a bunch of low life folks who aren't supporting you, then there is no room for the people who do love you. You mentioned a moment ago the haters. How do you handle the haters, particularly in this office where haters have to be handled politically correctly and with discretion? And I know so many people are faced with it. We know this about social media. People say just the meanest things. And you're faced in your life with people who can tear you down a lot. The haters. Well, when it comes to social media, there are just times I turn off the world. You know, there are just some times you have to give yourself space to be quiet, which means you got to set those phones down. You can't be reading all that stuff. I mean, that's like letting somebody just walk up and slap you, you know? You would never do that. You would never just sit there and go, slap me in the face and I'm good with it. No. You know, so why would you open yourself up to that? So that's one thing with social media. I don't read that stuff. I learned that early in the campaign. I couldn't keep reading stuff about my husband and what people thought and thought, you know, because I knew who he was. I knew what was going on in our home, in our lives. So I didn't need to read about it from somebody else. But the other thing that I have found, particularly in this job, that it's people won't remember what other people say about you, but they will remember what you do. So my my strategy and I've always been like this when a teacher would come and tell me that I couldn't do something, I would get so much satisfaction proving them wrong. I'd be like, OK, all right. Oh, you don't think I'm going to do X, Y and Z? Well, I'm going to be the best X, Y, Z you can imagine. So when it came to this role. I just said, you know, let me just be first lady. Let me wake up every day and work hard to do something of value and to do it well and to do something consequential and to do something that I care about and then let that speak for itself. And that would shut up the haters because I would have a whole portfolio of stuff that defined me because it's what I did, not what you called me. So the best revenge is success, success and good work. Yeah, you don't have to say anything to the haters. You don't have to acknowledge them at all. You just wake up every morning and be the best you you can be. And that tends to shut them up. You know, I've always thought, too, that the best success comes when you when you can actually shift your paradigm to service. And obviously you are in a position of public service. Was it a conscious, intentional decision to sort of sit still? Be with this place and then allow your passion to fuel your interest, allow your passion to lead you to all the things you've been able to do with international girls education, with health and wellness. Was was that that's a conscious, intentional decision? Absolutely. Because in this world, particularly when you're in public service, you're first lady, the president, and you're interacting with the world. You know, people can smell inauthenticity. You know, they know when you are not what you appear to be. And that was always something that I said in this role that I want people to know me, know Michelle, Michelle Robinson, Obama, not the first lady, but I'm in every interaction I have had with anybody who's had some connection with me. I have tried to be authentically myself. And in order to do that, I learned that I have to do things that I authentically care about, because if I fundamentally deep down have a belief in the cause and I it moves me, then I'm going to be excited about it. It's going to be that excitement is going to be conveyed to the people that I'm trying to reach. It's not going to be a heavy lift. You know, that's why people say, how can you speak in front of all these people and do this every day? Look, I get energy from people and not everybody in politics and in public service or people, people, Barack and I really do. We are we are energized by the people we meet, you know, by the military spouses that I meet out there. I pick working with military families because they moved me. I met them out on the campaign trail, and I didn't know that there were millions of military families out there serving and sacrificing in ways that we take for granted in this country. And I vowed then and there just from meeting them that if I got to be first lady, I would try to be that voice for them. I would try to shine that light on them. So that came out of a direct passion for who those people were and what I learned about them. And I remember when you all first arrived at the White House, you said to the country that this is your house and we're going to open this up as your house. And so when I saw all those Girl Scouts out on the lawn, I went, y'all really did open up the house. Yes, yes. That's been some of the most fulfilling things we've been able to do in the White House. It's really bringing people here who would never, ever get to set foot on that lawn and walk into those doors. I tell my mentees all the time, you know, one of the things I want them to take away when they come because they come regularly. They come at least once a month and we sit down and we talk and they have seminars and I want them all to know you walk into the White House every day and you walk up to the first lady of the United States and say, hey, Michelle, what's going on? And if you can do that, you can do anything. If you can exist in this space, in this time, in this moment. Yes. And there is no class that you can't handle. There's no school whose rejection will make you fold or make you crumble. You've been here, you know, and I've watched so many kids come through those gates and really be in that space, picking, you know, tomatoes with me in the garden, getting to sit in and have tastings at the state dinner, being invited to watch Hamilton. I mean, just watching their eyes, just experiencing things that really only the privileged get to the experience, but having it be kids and people who would never believe they would set foot in that. You see them get empowered and transformed in the process. So many kids, you think their worldview will never be the same. And that's the least we can do as president and first lady. I think that's the obligation of anyone who lives in that house. Do you how do you feel? You know, I always feel that until you take your last breath, you're always growing and that every experience that you encounter in your life, just all of you being together here today and being in a room with people who are like minded, who share the same vision, all of that is so stimulating. You leave here and you feel like you can be better and do better. What has the experience or how has the experience of being first lady, you know, actually grown you? Wow. So many ways. I mean, first of all, there is absolutely nothing I can do. Right. I mean, because you walk in that. That's right. Yeah, that's right. But we've been in a mountaintop and it was a hard climb, but we made it. We made it. So you just, you know, again, you begin to understand how much you can how much you can tolerate, how much growth you can have, how much potential there is, how much opportunity there is to help people, how fulfilling it is. I mean, that's been the thing that I've learned that. Oh, it feels public service. I left the practice of law to go into public service for selfish reasons. I wanted to be happy and feel good every single day. I wanted to wake up inspired and ready to do something greater than myself. And that's what service and giving. And, you know, that's what this room means to to so many. And I just want to make sure that when people leave here, they don't go back into their isolation, that they don't go back to their phones looking down because this relationship isn't enough. You know, you need to have people in your lives that you're connecting with, that you're helping. I mean, there is there's nothing that makes me feel better than knowing that I help to change somebody's life. Oprah, you know this more than anyone else. And if you're doing that every single day, the haters, the doubters, none of that matters because you are getting so much by the work from the work that you're doing. Well, you know, I figured this out early on in the show. I read this quote from Dr. King, one of my favorite quotes from him that says not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service. And I literally shifted. I use that quote to help me shift the way I saw the platform of television instead of like, oh, I'm on TV. How do I use that platform as a platform of services? Amen. This was what I did. Yeah. Yeah, we know. And you did that pretty well, too. But when you think about growing and being empowered yourself, it is what you've been able to do for other people. That that leaves you the fullest. Yes, absolutely. That is that is really the thing. So I don't know. I you know, I don't sort of my growth is incidental. It is the it's it's the lucky gift I get for giving, you know. And like you said, I'm still growing. You know, we are all still growing. I I used to tell some of the young people I work with way back in Chicago days that I used to hate the question, what do you want to be when you grow up? Because it assumes that at some point you stop becoming and you just are something. And that would be a sad thing, you know, to think that this is it. And that's one of the things I've learned, that there is there's so many phases to life that this is just this even as big as being first lady and living in the White House has been. This is still just a portion of a very bigger journey that I have yet to know the outcome. And I won't know it until I'm laying laying down. It's just ever evolving. And I think that that reality, that this experience has helped me to see that. These are just phases, you know, and this has been a very interesting phase and a very impactful phase. But there's more to come. I love you saying that. I'm not through. We ain't through, aren't through. OK, so, yes, I believe in service. I believe in helping people. I want people to feel fulfilled and empowered in their life. But still, some days I think it's just cool to be me. And I think that, too, some days it's just cool to be Oprah. Yeah, no, I want to say so I want to know what are those days when you just say, hmm, hmm, hmm. There are so look at me in the White House. Yeah, just getting up here. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. You know, there are a lot of those moments, you know, Prince and Stevie Wonder singing in the East Room. Just may he rest in peace. I mean, those rare gifts of entertainment, the the kind of music we've been able to bring into the White House, you know, sitting with the pope, watching my mother and my daughters talk to the pope, that's like a look at. You know, dinner with the Queen of England. Just let me. You know, you try to play these moments off like, oh, yes, yes, I know what I'm doing inside. You're going. Good Lord. Yes. Watching my husband walk off of Marine One and go to the Oval Office is like, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. And and you know, he's got that walk, right? I know. Like he's got the swag. Did he always have that swag or has he gotten swaggier? No, he he he was very swagalicious. You know, look, I told people this from the very start when I started running Barack Obama, who is exactly who he says he is. We both are. That's what I've been trying to tell people. And no surprises. We're telling you who we are. And no tricks up our sleeves. We're regular folks. We care about people. We care about family. We want to do well. We want to make our country proud. We don't want to waste our talents just making money for for ourselves. Barack Obama hasn't changed, you know, not as a person, because he is an authentic man who came in and he's going to leave that same person. So it's not the it's not the office that changes you. It's just it amplifies who you are. I think I said that at the last convention. Being president doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are. And that's something that we should all remember. This is a United State of women. There are a lot of cool men out here. I love the president. Give it up for the brothers. It's not a cool man out here for them, for the men out here. I love the president's speech saying you're looking at a feminist. What can men do leaving here? Be better. Be better at everything. Be be better fathers. Good Lord. Just being good fathers who love your daughters and are providing a solid example of what it means to be a good man in the world and showing them what it feels like to be loved. That is the greatest gift that the men in my life gave to me. And we've talked about this. Yes. The fact that I've never experienced abuse at the hands of any man in my life. And that's sad to say that that's a rare reality. So men can be better at that. Men can be better husbands, you know, which is be a part of your family's life. Do the dishes. You know, don't babysit your children. You don't babysit your own children. You know, be engaged. You know, don't just think going to work and coming home makes you a man. Being a father, being engaged, all that stuff is important. Be a better employer. You know, when you are sitting at a seat of power at a table of any kind and you look around and you just see you, it's just you and a bunch of men around a table on a golf course making deals and you allow that to happen and you're OK with that. Be better. Be better. Be better. Be better. I love that. Just be better. I could go on, but I'm not. You get the point, fellas, right, fellas? What are you going to be? There you go. There you go. So here's the question that comes up over and over and over. And we talked a little bit about it. This idea of balance. Is that a false notion for women? Because can we really are we ever going to have it all? I used to say you can have it all. You just can't have it all at one time. Or is that a is that a false notion? Look, I am always irritated by the you can have it all statement. And I grew irritated with that phrase and that expectation. The older I got as you're trying to have it all. Yeah. And you're beating yourself up. Right. And feeling less than because you aren't having it all because it is a it's it's a it's a ridiculous aspiration, especially if you're looking at everybody else's Facebook page. Oh, God, everybody has it all. Everybody's lying. They're lying. Y'all need to stop lying. Be real about the fact that, you know, no one gets everything. That was one of the first rules you learned as a little kid. You don't always get your way. Come on, people. You don't always get what you want all the time. And that's true in life. So what I've told many young people is that you can have it all. But oftentimes it's hard to get it all at the same time. I believe, you know, so it's just a matter of a matter of managing expectations. So for me, for example, you know, when your husband is president of the United States and you have children, something's got to give. You know, I've I've I've made compromises in my life, in my career, but I've also in exchange gained a wonderful platform to do some great work. Who would have ever imagined that we would make the inroads we've made on healthy eating and changing the way our kids are fed in school? And, you know, I can point to so many things that I've had I've been able to do. If I want to be heavily involved in my girl's lives, that means that sometimes I have to put some things on the back burner to give them what they need. So it's it's hard to have it all. But that's where you go back to knowing who you are and knowing that, you know, you're really living through phases. And if you don't if you're compromising through one phase of your journey, you're not giving it all up. You're just you're compromising for that phase. There's another phase that's coming up where you might be able to have more of what you thought you wanted. You know, you get to know yourself a little bit more. So so no, I don't want young women out there to have the expectation that if they're not having it all, that somehow they're failing. Life is hard, but life is long. If you maintain your health, which is one of the reasons why we talk about health, talk about taking care of yourself, because you want to get to the next phases in life where you can do more of what you want to do at any given. You want to be wherever you are right now. And just like you say, I'm not through. No, you're not through. Not through. So 5000 women and men in this room. Thousands and thousands of others streaming us online. Hey, hey, everybody streaming. What is the one thing? Because I think it's really easy when you come to a conference like this and you get so inspired and you see Marley and Michaela, those young women and you see Billie Jean King and Gloria Steinem and Sandra Rimes and amazing Gary Washington, you see all these women and you're just like, I just want to be more of a woman. And you you you you get you're going to be overstimulated. What is the one thing you want us to leave here with? What is the one charge or one offering? What do you want to say? It's hard to think of one one thing. OK, a couple. But the work always continues. I mean, and by that, I just mean we're never done. We can never be complacent and think that we've arrived now as women. And because I hear this from young women, some of the some of you young women who aren't feeling the you know, the pains that many of our predecessors have felt, you think, well, there aren't any problems, women's rights. We got this all figured out. I'm already equal. I'm I'm good. I just like, oh, just you wait. You'll feel it. So the work continues. And for all the young women in this room, all the young men, we can never be complacent because we we have seen in recent times how quickly things can be taken away. If we aren't vigilant, if we don't know our history, you know, if we if we don't continue the work. So my hope is that people leave here inspired and ready to do something. You know, again, remember, it's not what people say about you. It's what you do. So the question is, what are you going to do? You know, how are you going to be better? What are you going to change in your office, in your life, in your relationships? What are you going to change in your family dynamic? And how are you going to empower yourself with the knowledge that you need to know what work needs to be done? We can't afford to be ignorant. We can't afford to be complacent. So we have to continue the work. Yeah, I think that's powerful, because the question that you just just offered to us is, what did this mean? And what can I do with what I have received from all of the stimulation, all of this energy? What can what can I do? That's the question. You were talking about the next phase. I heard you say that when you all are done, we saw your new house. When you're we're neither conforming or confirming or denying. OK. OK. When you all are done. OK, when you're done and you move out of the White House, I've heard you say that you look forward to riding around with the windows down. Are you still going to be Michelle Obama? Yeah. We're going to know who you are. And it won't matter how many baseball caps you put on. We're going to say, hey, Michelle. Hey, Michelle. I get that. Yeah. So what is the what is the one thing that you think you wanted? You really want to do? Can we go shopping? Yeah, girl, let's go shopping. Let's go shop. You and me. That will be a scene. You know, it's what you want to go shopping. We're going to go shopping with us. You know, it's it's really the little things. I mean, and you feel this, you know, fame can be confining, you know, and then you start missing the little things. You know, what do I want to do? I want to walk out. I want to open my front door. Without discussing it with anyone. And I want to walk out that door and just walk. Just want to walk by myself or with a semblance of feeling like I'm by myself, because that's what you learn how to do. It's like I'm alone with 800 people walking behind me. But I've learned how to die. I'm by myself, but I do I want to walk down a street. I want to sit in a yard that is not a national park. You know, I do want to. You know, drop in on into Target. I want to, you know, I do I want to go to Target again. I've heard so many things have changed in Target. You know, I tell my friends they're going to have to give me a re-entry training. They're like, OK, what do you do at CVS now? How do you check out? You know, that's like I've been living in a cave. But it's the small things, you know, fresh air. You know, in the White House, you can't open a window. Sasha opened her window once. There were calls. Shut the window. It never opened again. So it's the little things that, you know, you the things that we all just take for granted, take for granted. You know, I won't even ask for anonymity, but you know, because I think that's forever gone. But one of the things that I've learned is that if you just flow into a pattern of life with people, they give you space to come in. That's happened at my kid's school and the places where I go and work out. You know, once people get used to the fact that you're going to be there, it's the first lady. Then it's sort of like it's over. It's like you do it a few times. It's like it's the first lady, you know. So I hope to to find a way to seamlessly work my way into a normal life. And it's going to take time, but I'm going to slowly. It's going to happen. And we're going to go shopping. We're going to shop. We're going to shop in. And you will leave here most proud of. You know what, truly, I am most proud of my daughters. You know, I mean, I can I could go down the list of my initiatives, and we have done a lot changed the way our kids eat. We're supported military families. We made that conversation part of the community. The work that we're doing on girls education will be something that I do for the rest of my life. This is all work that will continue. It is there. Those problems won't be solved in my lifetime. But raising two girls, like I said at the beginning, when I sent them off in the car that first day and they were so little and the the the the bulletproof glass was so thick, you know, I thought, oh, my God, I just want them to grow up feeling a sense, knowing that they're loved by us, feeling confident, feeling a sense of normalcy, feeling a sense of obligation to do something outside of themselves, just being good people. And we just, you know, went to Malia's high school graduation and we're watching Sasha move her way through high school. And I am very proud of those two and how they've managed the situation and how they have continued to be themselves. Regular little girls just trying to figure it out. And I'm I'm as all mothers do. You breathe that sigh of relief that you didn't mess up your kids. And I'm I every day I cross my fingers and hope that I'm doing right by them. And I'm providing with them with a good foundation so that they can be great people. So thank you. And I just want to say the way you handle this office, the way you carry yourself, have presented yourself to the United States of America and the women of the United States of America and men of the United States of America reminds me of a line that Maya used to say is actually in the beginning of one of her books. She says, you make me proud to spell my name. W. O. M. A. N. Michelle Obama. And I would like to add to that. I would like to add to that. Oh, oh, oh.