A Promised Land

A Promised Land is former president Barack Obama’s memoir in which he explains how he got into politics, what it was like for him to be president of the United States from 2009 to 2017, and how he felt during some of his biggest achievements, like passing the Affordable Care Act.

Barack Hussein Obama grew up in Honolulu with his mom and grandparents. Nobody would expect him to end up in public office, much less be president one day. In his youth, he did drugs and partied, and even his grades were mediocre.

But in his teen years reading became a passion of his. He soon found himself fascinated with political theory and wanted to use his knowledge to solve social and economic issues.

After graduating from Columbia, he worked with communities in Chicago to help people adversely affected by the closure of steel plants. While he learned a lot, he wanted more change that could have a real impact on communities. So he went to Harvard Law.

After graduation, he became a state senator and now had a young family. It seemed like he had it all. But he wanted more. So he decided to run for the House of Representatives, despite Michelle’s protesting that he should be around more.

It was also a bold move considering the opponent was a popular incumbent. He lost by 30 points. At this low point in his life, he reflected on his choices. He had made an arrogant decision to run a nearly impossible race, and worse, he let down his family.

But for some reason, he couldn’t leave politics completely. He couldn’t let go of his dream of helping Americans of all different political, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. So he decided he would give the national office one more try, with Michelle’s approval. They agreed that if it didn’t work, he’d walk away from politics without looking back.

While he was running for the Senate, some of his speeches became viral on blogs and MySpace. His powerful and persuasive message moved people, and momentum grew. His now-famous speech at the Democratic National Convention would be the last time he could walk into a room unrecognized. Soon after, he won the Senate mandate by a landslide. Inside, however, Barack had a lot of self-doubts, not to mention he wasn’t very experienced yet. The media didn’t seem to take no for an answer. His stance changed when he visited Senator Ted Kennedy. He told Obama that this was his moment, and life doesn’t let us choose when our moment is. When he announced he would be running, people came to see him in droves. But it wouldn’t all be easy. The racial issues…