WASHINGTON — Drawing from her own experience as a first-generation college student, first lady Michelle Obama encouraged several hundred graduates here to embrace struggle as a means of personal growth.
“Don’t ever, ever shy away from a good struggle,” the first lady said at a recent graduation ceremony for the District of Columbia College Access Program, more commonly known as DC-CAP, which provides counseling and scholarship aid to district students.
“Instead, I want you to seek it out and dive in head first, because that’s what truly successful people do,” she said, citing her husband Barack Obama’s rise to the White House as an example.
The first lady told the students that though they may have struggled to get through school, they had grown smarter as a result.
“Science actually shows that when you’re struggling to solve a problem or to understand a concept, you’re forming new pathways and connections in your brain,” Obama said. “So struggling isn’t a bad thing.
“It’s a sign that you’re expanding your capacity to handle the hard challenges that you will inevitably face throughout your entire life.”
