Discussion: Obama's thoughts on personal development

In the preface to her memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama presents her opinion on personal development. She gives herself as an example, pointing to her many roles, challenges, and achievements, to show that a person should not allow themselves to be defined by only one role.

Obama begins by mentioning a question that adults frequently ask children: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” (l. 7). Obama dismisses the question as “useless” (l. 7), because, in her opinion, growing up is an ongoing process that does not have a fixed endpoint. To illustrate this, Obama mentions all her important jobs and shows that she has been through many stages of development, arguing that the process has not finished yet. In the interview with Oprah in which Obama discusses her memoir, she admits that she is “still becoming” (1:55) – an idea emphasized by the title of the memoir.

In the interview, Obama also states that when someone sees the process of growing up as something finite, they might be in danger of missing out on opportunities. In her preface, she admits that there are still things that ...