Mrs. Michelle Obama,
I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being the inspiration that all young girls, that people everywhere, need. Whether you realize it or not, you have inspired so many people through your eight years as First Lady. One of those people is me.
When I was in sixth grade, your incredible husband was sworn in as President of the United States. Little naïve sixth-grade Lina sat in awe in the cafeteria during lunch while the inauguration was being played because she knew, even then, that Barack Obama was going to make history and was there to make great changes in the world.
She knew without a doubt that, should she have been able to cast a vote, she would’ve been voting for President Obama—both times. What she didn’t know at the time was what she was going to do with her life. That’s where you came in.
Around 2011, all of your work with your Let’s Move! Campaign really got me interested in nutrition. I saw how you were changing peoples’ lives across the country and wondered how I could do my part to make big changes.
Incidentally, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution was airing on television around the same time that all of this was working around in my head. By the sheer combination of these programs I discovered that there was such a thing as a registered dietitian.
As an eighth-grader I decided, with your unknowing help, that I would study to be a dietitian once I entered college. Sure, I contemplated other options throughout high school — mainly zoology and computer science — but just seeing how much good I could do in the world kept me nailed down with dietetics.
Sadly, you no longer hold the title of First Lady of the United States, but I am forever thankful that you were. I so look forward to seeing how you make more great changes in this world, and I hope that you can one day see the changes that I will make, since, after all, I was inspired by the best.