My sense is that being a First Lady is a full-time job, but I'll know more when the time comes.
People have notions of what a wife's role should be in this process, and it's been a traditional one of blind adoration. My model is a little different - I think most real marriages are.
Over the years I've become more confident in people's ability to recognize a good thing.
I mean, hope doesn't get actualized in three and a half years. If that were the case, we'd be out of luck as a country.
It's always positive to hear how many people are willing to step up - whether it is the employment community, mental health community, or medical community.
It's not about government telling people what to do. It's about each of us, in our own families, in our own communities, standing up and demanding more for our kids. And it's about companies like Walmart answering that call.
I want to feel like the things I did made a difference. That's one of the reasons I spend time greeting people on rope lines, because I'm always thinking, 'Maybe this interaction, particularly if I'm meeting kids, will change someone's life.' That's how I think about the work I do as First Lady. It's a rare spotlight. I want to make sure I don't waste it.
And then there's this guy, Barack Obama, who lost - I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures, but - he lost his first race for Congress, and now he gets to call himself my husband.
For me, I look at the faces of my kids and I think about the future that is going to await them and whether they're going to not just have the financial resources to be prepared for the challenge, but whether they're going to have the strength and the stamina to live healthier, longer lives so that they can see their kids and grandkids. That's the legacy I hope to see, and it can have nothing to do with me and I'd be perfectly happy.
To be a good parent, you need to take care of yourself so that you can have the physical and emotional energy to take care of your family.
What I tell my kids is, I’m preparing you for college and for life. So, having independence, knowing how to set your own boundaries, figuring out how to make that balance. We still have screen time rules.
Fashion is about so much more than just a pretty pair of pumps or the perfect hemline. For so many people across the country, it is a calling, it is a career, and it's a way they feed their families.
Much of what we do with our kids is social and that's good, and we shouldn't stop all that. I mean, how boring would it be that, no, we can't eat anything out so we're just going to go home and sit in the closet and wait to the next day.
That's where you just have to get creative. There are all these trampoline parks and there's bowling and there's roller skating.
I'm trolling through the recesses of my mind for the things I did with my kids when they used to like to do things with me. They don't want to be around me now. I look back on these times - all those little funny pottery dishes that you'd pay for, and they'd paint, and they were ugly, and you glazed them, and you'd go back, pick them up, and it's like, "Oh, now I've got to put this on my desk." There's all that kind of stuff.
I know what makes me happy. I pick the clothes that make me happy - sometimes people like them, sometimes they don't. I try to listen to my own internal guide.
I love french fries, I like a good burger, and I like pie. And that's okay. I would be depressed if I felt I could never eat the things that I love. I also don't want my girls to be obsessed about food. We don't have a "no junk food" rule - I just want them to think about their choices.
I try to tell young people to get in shape now, because it's easier. If you're 30 and want to drop 10 pounds, all you have to do is just walk.
My happiness is measured against my kids' happiness - when they're in a good place, I feel really good.
Happiness for me is when my kids are good and when my family is whole.
I think that people are tired. They're tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.
I always want to be on the cusp of being in the best shape that I can be. What I'm discovering is that the older you get, the more work you have to do to stay there.
I've always tried to make sure that what I do really connects with the broader agenda of what my husband Barack Obama is trying to do.... But I also find that I have to be very passionate myself about the issue to be able to represent it well. One of the big issues that I've talked a lot about...is childhood health, nutrition and obesity.
We're all bombarded with so many dietary messages that it's hard to find time to sort through all this information, but we do have time to take a look at our kids' plates.
My role models were the people in my life. My mom, for sure. My dad. The teachers. For me, role-modeling was immediate, it was touchable. It was rare for me to idolize a movie star or a singer...because, truly, children connect with who is in their lives, present and accounted for.
