Michelle Obama: Advice to My Younger Self


10/12/2014 AT 09:00 PM EDT



If she could go back in time, what words of wisdom would Michelle Obama share with a school-aged version of herself? The First Lady shared her thoughts in a special essay for PEOPLE:

If I could give my younger self just one piece of advice, it would be this: Stop being so afraid! That's really what strikes me when I look back – the sheer amount of time I spent tangled up in fears and doubts that were entirely of my own creation. I was afraid of not knowing the answer in class and looking stupid, or worried about what some boy thought of me, or wondering whether the other girls liked my clothes or my hair, or angsting about some offhand comment someone made to me in the lunchroom.


I would love to go back in time and tell my younger self, "Michelle, these middle and high school years are just a tiny blip in your life, and all the slights and embarrassments and heartaches, all those times you got that one question wrong on that test – none of that is important in the scheme of things."






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