Michelle Obama’s Commencement Speech

There is something about Michelle Obama addressing the graduating class of 2016 of the City College of New York, as her final commencement speech as the first lady of the United States, that is oddly perfectly curated. She addressed the crowd before her with the confidence and sincerity that only someone that has been in the same shoes and has held the same struggles as us can. She reveals that it is this solidarity, to the life of advancement through struggles, that credits her to speak to our hearts, rather than just our ears. I too, am a part of the many that has made it to the “Poor man’s Harvard” and has witnessed first-hand the struggles that she recalls in her commencement speech. It is her empowering words and recounting that engrave the words of her wisdom into the long and rich historic life of the City College of New York, and moreover, the graduating class.

            Michelle Obama commences her speech with a welcoming address to the community and a congratulatory remark for the Valedictorian and Salutatorian of the graduating class. She follows with an opening remark that explains her position in the world now as the first lady of the United States of America, and as the once young and naive, yet focused and hopeful young college student from years past. “And, graduates, I really want you all to know that there is a reason why, of all of the colleges and universities in this country, I chose this particular school in this particular city for this special moment. And I’m here because of all of you” (Obama 1). She uses a nostalgic, yet relatable, approach to the students. Calling upon the examples of the struggles of a college student trying to make it further in life, and often, being the first to venture off into that journey. She recounts and praises the class of 2016 for the nights of sacrificed sleep and the commutes full of study sessions and learning. The use of empathetic relatability to the students and parents, that gave all they had to make it to that graduating day, is the driving force of empowerment to the class of underdogs. Counted out by society for their struggles and their racial diversity, yet the ones destined to make it further than anyone could ever believe. She relates back to her times as a college student, where she too worked and thrived within the walls of her university, with the help of her hopeful father and the hunger for success, she is where she is today. She uses a factual approach of the White house being constructed by slaves years ago, to make it stand out that she, a woman of color and her family, now live inside and have changed the roles perpetuated by society for the underdogs standing before her. The overall purpose of her commencement speech is to congratulate the graduating class, but not simply any graduating class. It is the class of 2016 of the City College of New York. Which she exemplifies as a school dictated by the ranks of merit, and not “pedigree”. A manner of exemplifying the customs of high ranking, and high costing, universities have of preference for the name of the person over the academic worth they offer. “They act as if name-calling is an acceptable substitute for thoughtful debate, as if anger and intolerance should be our default state rather than the optimism and openness that have always been the engine of our progress.” (Obama 1)

            Personally, I too, as many of those graduates did, related on an intimately personal level to the words of Michelle Obama’s Commencement speech. There was a point in my academic history in which I was working 3 jobs, to try to maintain myself in college full time, and having to tackle the architectural field of study. It was one of the hardest moments I have found myself in. The rush to travel from the design studios to the job 2 boroughs over was a weight on my mind and heart that few should know. The opportunities that merit presented me was vast, but the limitations set on me by my legal status, or rather the lack there of, that limited me to stay in New York. Yet the confidence I feel from being one of the few people selected to attend the City College of New York, or as many people famously know it, “The Poor-man’s Harvard”, is incomparable. From the announcement of my name at the valedictorian annunciation ceremony, to the day that someday my name will be called on the stage of the City College of New York, maybe not by Michelle Obama, but by another great individual that believed in the same thing the first lady believed in. Us.