London: US first lady Michelle Obama started her 2 day visit to London, on Monday with both her daughters and mother Marian Robinson. They was hosted by Prince Harry for tea at the Kensington Palace where the Prince and Michelle Obama discussed support for veterans and their families.
She later visited east London to attend an education promotional event at the Mulberry School for Girls, on June 16 where she was greeted with a song, interpretive dance and warm glowing smiles.
Michelle travelled to the British capital to promote the 'Let Girls Learn' initiative, launched in March. True to her nature, the Harvard and Princeton-educated lawyer spoke on an emotional and personal tern as she addressed an audience of girls. She told them the world needed, “more girls like you to lead our parliaments, our courtrooms and universities.”
“With an education from this amazing school you all have everything, everything you need to rise above all of the noise and fulfil every last one of your dreams. And it is so important that you do that, not just for yourselves but for all of us. Because you all have a unique perspective, you have a unique voice to add to the conversation.”
Comparing her upbringing with theirs, she reminisced her teenage days when people told her not to set her sights too high as she was black. Her parents realised education was the ultimate key to success and she could be successful if she worked hard at school. “They also knew that a good education was the ultimate key to our success. My parents told me everyday I could be anything. I could grow up to be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, whatever, but only if I worked as hard as I could to succeed in school.”
She said she never could have dreamed of running a non governmental organization, becoming a hospital executive or living in the White House as first lady. “Those kinds of achievements seemed totally out of reach when I was growing up. I was just a working class kid,” she said. “The fact that I was a girl and I was black - that certainly didn’t help things, either.”
“With an education from this amazing school, you have everything you need to rise above all the noise and fulfil every last one of your dreams,” she told the students of the school. “Girls like you inspire me and impress me every single day. When I look out at all these young women, I see myself. In so many ways your story is my story.”
