My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before. I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong.

I hate fund-raising. Haaaaate it. Hate, hate it.

When you're really trying to make serious change, you don't want people to get caught up in emotion because change isn't emotion. Because change isn't emotion. Its real work and organization and strategy - that's just the truth of it. I mean, you pull people in with inspiration, but then you have to roll up your sleeves and you've got to make sacrifices and you have got to have structure.

To be able to do it in the warmth and - of the White House and to do it around people who do care about my kids in a country that has been respectful of my children and their privacy, it has been less stressful than I would have imagined for me.

I am so tired of fear. And I don't want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear.

Selfishly, working with kids gives me joy - it makes me feel like my life has a purpose. And I thought, Imagine what we can do in the White House, particularly with the kids in the D.C. area, many of whom have never set foot on the White House lawn.

I think in the end, I want to make sure that my kids come out of this thing on the other end in one piece. But I also know that that's how the rest of the country feels as well, so for that I am grateful.