When your dad is the president of the country and your high school graduation is coming up, it almost seems like a no-brainer to have him serve as commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony.
Unfortunately for Malia Obama and her classmates, President Obama says he won’t do it.
While visiting the Jolly Pumpkin Brewery in Detroit yesterday, the commander in chief told a group of patrons that the invitation was extended but he turned it down because he thinks he’ll get too emotional and swept up in the moment.
“Malia’s school asked if I wanted to speak at commencement and I said no,” the president shared. “I’m going to be wearing dark glasses … and I’m going to sit there and cry.”
Just last week the president told audience members at a town hall event in Louisiana that he can barely even talk about Malia leaving home because it gets him choked up. Malia, 17, is finishing her senior year at the exclusive Sidwell Friends School in the nation’s capital and is expected to start college this coming fall, though she has yet to determine which college she’ll be attending.
President Obama said in their talks about her prospective school he told her whatever she does to not choose the school based on brand name alone.
“One piece of advice that I’ve given her is not to stress too much about having to get into one particular college,” Obama said. “There are a lot of good colleges and universities out there. … Just because it’s not some name-brand, famous, fancy school doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get a great education there.”
“[But that’s] assuming that Malia will listen to my advice,” he added. “She’s very much like her mother at this point. She’s got her own mind.”
Brown, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale are among the schools Malia has visited and is said to be considering.
