Remarks by the First Lady at Eastern Kentucky University

Commencement

Thank you so much. (Applause.) Oh, my goodness. Good

evening. Thank you. I am just overwhelmed. And as an honorary

degree holder, it is now my pleasure to say, Go Colonels! (Applause.)

I want to start by thanking President Whitlock for that very

kind introduction, but more importantly, for his decades of service to this

university and to this country. And it is my honor to be here on your

last commitment. And I also want to thank your wife and your family,

because I know that they have served right along with you. So

congratulations. I am so glad to be here today. (Applause.)

I also want to recognize Governor Beshear and his wife and dear

friend of ours, Jane, as well as Richmond Mayor Jim Barnes, who is here;

all of the elected officials we have with us tonight; also the University

Singers for those beautiful selections -- just gifted individuals. And I

don’t want to leave out Candace for her very inspiring remarks. And to

the 14 men and women who just became the newest officers in the United

States Army -- yes. (Applause.)

And of course, I want to join in in recognizing all of these beautiful

people in the stands today –- the family members who supported you all

every step of the way. And since tomorrow is what? AUDIENCE:

Mother's Day. MRS. OBAMA: I'm sure everybody is on their jobs, right? Got flowers ordered, everything? I want to give a special

greeting to my fellow moms, and congratulate you for successfully

coming out on the other side of adolescence in one piece. You’ve done

it. You have succeeded in raising college graduates. I welcome any

advice you have on how you got it right. But most of all -- yes, indeed,

to the moms, and the grandmoms, and the godmoms, and all the mom

figures in our lives who keep us going. (Applause.)

Thank you all. But most of all, I want to congratulate the stars of

today’s show -- the EKU Class of 2013! Yes! (Applause.) You all

should proud, very proud. As the president said, this is a true milestone

in life. And I can only imagine the mix of emotions that you must be

feeling at this moment -- the unbridled joy, the unmistakable sense of

utter relief. (Laughter.)

You all went through so much to make it to this day -- the highs

and the lows, the triumphs, the challenges, the celebrations, the

devastations -- and I’m not just talking about your love lives, either.

(Laughter.) I’m talking about all those papers you poured your heart

into; all those caffeine-fueled all-nighters; those moments of anxiety as

you set out on your own, looking to find new friends you clicked with

and a new community to call your own.

And for so many of you, I know that graduating from college was

not a foregone conclusion. Some of you came from high schools that don’t send a lot of kids to college. Some of you had to work full time so

that you could not only pay for your degree, but also support your

family. And so many of you, as I have seen, are first in your families to

graduate from college. So I know you faced all kinds of doubts and

uncertainties when you first showed up on this campus. And I know a

little bit about that from my own experiences. As you've heard, my

parents were working folks who never earned a degree past high school.

They didn’t have a lot of money, so sending me and my brother to school

was a huge sacrifice for them. The vast majority of our tuition came

from loans and grants, but let me tell you, every month, my father would

write out his small check. He was determined to pay his portion of that

tuition right on time, even if it meant taking out loans when he fell short.

See, what our parents had to offer us was a whole lot of love.

And while we could always call home and talk through the ups and

downs of our lives with our parents, the truth is they couldn’t give us a lot

more than that. They couldn’t give us a lot of guidance when it came to

choosing classes and professors, or finding internships and jobs. So

when I first set foot on college, my campus, it was all a bit of a mystery

to me.

And honestly, in the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the voices

from some of the people at my high school who told me that I could

never make it at the school I’d chosen. When I first set foot on campus, oh, it all seemed so big and overwhelming. I didn’t even know

where to start -- how to pick out the right classes, how to even find the

right buildings. So I began to think that maybe all those doubters might

have been right. I didn’t even know how to furnish my own dorm

room. I saw all these other kids moving in all sorts of couches and

lamps and decorations for their rooms, but when I unpacked my

belongings, I realized that I didn’t even have the right size sheets for my

bed –- mine were way too short.

So that first night, I stretched the sheets down as far as they could

go, then I draped the covers over the foot of my bed so when I crawled

into bed my legs were sticking out past the sheets, rubbing up against that

cold, plastic mattress. And I slept that way for the entire freshman year.

But when you come from a family like mine, that’s what you do. You

make the most of what you’ve got. (Applause.)

You use all that good common sense and you don’t make excuses.

You work hard, and you always finish what you start. And no matter

what, you give everybody a fair shake, and when somebody needs a hand,

you offer yours. See, those were the gifts my parents gave me -- their

values. And I quickly learned that those gifts were far more valuable

than money or connections. Because once I got to college, I found that

when I applied all those values to my studies, I was able to set -- develop

an entirely new set of skills that I would use for the rest of my life --