Graduates, “You are more than ready,” she said. (reuters photo)
First lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement speech today to graduates of the Washington Math and Science Tech public charter high school, knitting her own story to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and telling the graduates to ignore the doubters.
Obama recalled her own graduation, and her fear about entering Princeton, and whether she was ready for the challenge. She said when she heard Sotomayor talk about her own experience, it rang a few bells:
When she arrived at Princeton as a freshman — and this was nine years before I would even think about going — she said when she stepped on that campus, she said — and this is a quote — she said she felt like ‘a visitor landing in an alien country.’ (Laughter.) And she said she never raised her hand her first year because — and this is a quote — she ‘was too embarrassed and too intimidated to ask questions.’
So despite all of her success at Princeton — and then she went on to Yale Law School where she was at the top of her class, in both schools — and despite all of her professional accomplishments, Judge Sotomayor says she still looks over her shoulder and wonders if she measures up.
And when I read her story, I understood exactly how she feels. And I understood what it must have been like for her to step on that campus despite these nagging voices that sometimes rumble around in your head. And for me, the voices came from people who at first told me, don’t bother applying to Princeton, not a school like that — because they said I’d never get in.
Then when I got in, they told me not to go because I wouldn’t be able to compete against students who would be more prepared. And then when I decided to attend, they told me that I shouldn’t go to a school so far away from home because I would have a hard time making friends; I would feel out of place and I wouldn’t make it through. Voices of people sowing seeds of doubt in my head.
It’s an interesting, topical message from the first lady, who so far has been a strongly supportive but not activist member of the Obama administration. Will she get more involved in promoting Sotomayor’s nomination? The administration probably doesn’t need her to, but she’s a powerful messenger to keep in reserve.
