Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it...and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are, or where we're from, or what we look like, or who we love.

When I was little, I wanted to be a mother, because that's who I saw. I saw my mom caring for me. I didn't play doctor. I didn't play lawyer. I didn't have those visions until I was in college, meeting people who were doing those things. That's why we're trying to encourage moms, teachers, fathers, to be that presence in their children's lives, in their communities, because it really makes a difference.

Do not ever let anyone make you feel like you don't matter, or like you don't have a place in our American story - because you do.

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 mean, that's the least we should do for these men and women [veterans and military spouses], is to make sure they come back to jobs that pay, to career opportunities, that these spouses are able to add a second income to their households, because these families do not have a lot of resources.

It is our fundamental belief in the power of hope that has allowed us to rise above the voices of doubt and division, of anger and fear that we have faced in our own lives and in the life of America.

But, as potentially the first African American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations; conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud, or too angry, or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman?