After a fun and crazy day in New York, I got to be the pool for an event with the First Lady to celebrate the end of Women's History Month. She visited Ballou High School in DC to meet with high school students to talk about mentoring. I had heard about Ballou when I was a tutor with a mentoring program (remember me talking about Ernest?) but I had never been there. It's definitely in a part of town that a girl like me only goes to when I'm extremely lost. Especially a place where I should be by my lonesome. But I figured that if FLOTUS was going to be there, security couldn't be any better and I would be fine. My car is already missing a hubcap so I wasn't too concerned about leaving my car there. I had so many preconceived notions of what it was going to be like and all of them were wrong. I felt extremely safe (the number of Secret Service helped) and while the school facility itself lacked in a bit of upkeep, I realized that I was there to see really good things happening. I cherish my days of tutoring Ernest and wish my schedule allowed for something like that again. These kids (at least the ones in the school's library) were quite inspiring. As FLOTUS talked to them, I realized once again how blessed I was to have exceptionally wonderful people in my life as a kid and what a great education I received. But these kids are super-duper inspiring because they have to overcome so much just to get an education at all. FLOTUS said they reminded her of herself growing up in the southside of Chicago overcoming obstacles. These kids have the First Lady of the United States to look to as a role model who understands them. I admire her for making an effort to hold events like this one and so many others and to reach out to those who need good, positive role models.
This was one picture that I couldn't post for work but it makes me laugh. She was actually blowing a kiss to a kid in the library but the camera snapped at exactly the wrong millisecond. This is the picture that would make me doing anything she asked just so she wouldn't yell at me. 
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