Michelle Obama Gets Emotional About Chicago’s South Side in Commencement Address

First lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address at the graduation ceremony for the King College at Chicago State University on Tuesday night.

Michelle Obama traveled to her hometown to speak about her feelings to the students in order to motivate them to keep going in the right direction to achieve their goals.  A twenty-five minutes long motivational speech was given to the graduates of class 2015.

First lady Michelle Obama made it as spokesperson to the university to appreciate the win of the graduating class on a video contest encouraging students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a critical first step to securing financial assistance.

The first lady highlighted the difficulties faced by the people of the area which is known as the south side. She wanted to shed light on the story of the people living across this side of the country.

Michelle Obama explained the hardships and the challenges people face on daily basis in order to carry out their lives. According to her she is well aware of the problems which especially young students face to get to their universities or back to home because of the high crime rate in the community.

Mrs. Obama while addressing students said that life has taught her valuable lessons which are necessary to succeed. She paid emphasis on remaining humble and having faith with courage to achieve greater heights in life.  

She urged young graduates to move forward under any circumstances. She motivated the students by telling them to get inspiration from the hardships and hard times. Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you let them inspire you, she added.

She also said that seeking help in order to make you better is not a sign of weakness. The lady also shared her story of the struggling times which her parents survived and became even stronger. 

First lady also honored the memory of a young 15 year old student Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot in the back while standing in a park in January 2013. She apparently was mistaken as someone else by a gang and lost her life. Ms.

Michelle presented a cap, gown and class ring to the parents of the young student. She said it is okay to feel the sadness and the grief that comes with a loss but insisted on remaining strong.

Furthermore, while motivating graduates she said that something which does not kills you makes you stronger. She insisted them to stay focused as every scar reminds of the hard time that a person has survived.

She also quoted the example of Lorraine Hansberry, who was a determined play writer from their community. She shared that despite of all the struggles Lorraine remained focused to raise the money to produce her first play. Eventually, her play “A Raisin in the Sun” became the first play by an African American woman to make it to Broadway. 

Michelle Obama congratulated all the graduates once again at the end and told them how proud she is. She wished them best of luck to continue to achieve great accomplishments in the years ahead.