Memoir Reflection Post 3

I typically enjoy memoirs because I think it’s interesting to learn about how people got to be where they are today. I really enjoyed reading the excerpt from Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and I think I would like to read the entire book sometime! What I enjoyed most about this piece though was how she really took the time to share descriptive details about those people who were in her life at the time that these memories occurred. I especially enjoyed the part and the humor behind her boyfriend at the time, Kevin’s desire to become the mascot for the Cleveland Browns. Similarly, in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, a passage that stood out to me was when she was talking about adoption. “...but adoption drops you into the story after it has started. It’s like reading a book with the first few pages missing. It’s like arriving after curtain up. The feeling that something is missing never, ever leaves you– and it can’t, and it shouldn’t because something is missing.” I think that this is a very interesting way to talk about adoption but a way that completely puts her perspective into the reader's mind in an effective way. Relating to the article surrounding Freud that we read, I think memoirs raise an interesting thought, that being how it is very interesting what memories stick out to us as we get older. As we were having our class discussion yesterday, I was thinking about how there are so many memories I could recall from my childhood but I decided to recall on just one specific day.