Over the past few years as First Lady I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country And everywhere I've gone in the people I've met and the stories I've heard I have seen the very best of the American spirit See, our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys... Saturdays at soccer games Sundays at grandma's house... and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie because as an exhausted mom I couldn't stay awake for both Even back then Barack was a Senator and a presidential candidate...to me he was still the guy who picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door... he was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he'd found in a dumpster Well, today after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined I have seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are no it reveals who you are When it comes to the health of our families Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day another president He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically that's not how he was raised he cared that it was the right thing to do When we were first married our combined monthly student loan bills were actually higher than our mortgage We were so young, so in love and so in debt if we want to give all our children a foundation for their dreams and opportunities worthy of their promise... if we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility that belief that here in America there is always something better out there if you're willing to work for it... then we must work like never before... and we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward.. my husband our President Barack Obama Thank you God bless you, and God bless America