Michelle Obama writes about the lives of people who influenced her world view as she entered her role as First Lady:
"I carried a history with me, and it wasn't that of presidents or First Ladies. I'd never related to the story of John Quincy Adams the way I did to that of Sojourner Truth, or been moved by Woodrow Wilson the way I was by Harriet Tubman. The struggles of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King were more familiar to me than those of Eleanor Roosevelt or Mamie Eisenhower. I carried their histories, along with those of my mother and grandmothers. None of these women could ever have imagined a life like the one I now had, but they'd trusted that their perseverance would yield something better, eventually, for someone like me. I wanted to show up in the world in a way that honored who they were."
Who have been your role models?
How are we shaped by the role models in our histories?
How do we bring our own histories, cultures and experiences into spaces where they have never existed?