The ‘Emotional’ Moment the Obamas Dropped Off 18-Year-Old Sasha at College: ‘We Wanted to Make It Feel Normal’

Besides for his or her last identify and world-famous faces, Barack and Michelle Obama have been identical to so many different mother and father earlier this yr when, as late summer time started crisping into fall, they sent off their youngest to high school.

“Time just goes so fast. However like so many experiences in the last 10 years, we needed to make it feel as regular as attainable, given our household’s circumstances,” the former first woman tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, reflecting on 18-year-old daughter Sasha Obama‘s subsequent chapter.

“It was in fact a bit emotional to drop Sasha off at school,” says Mrs. Obama, admitting “the robust part” has been “lacking our women.”

“It’s an adjustment to see each other for a weekend here, a vacation break there, but the moments we do spend collectively really feel additional particular due to it,” she says.

And when Sasha is in her school dorm (the Obamas have asked to keep personal where she is enrolled) she is going to still be surrounded by the familiarity of household.

“We have been there, identical to most mother and father, helping her unpack and make her dorm room really feel like residence,” Mrs. Obama says.

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“But by and enormous, we let her maintain herself,” she continues. “As a mum or dad, probably the most necessary issues we may give our youngsters is the liberty to seek out their very own means on the earth.”

Echoing what she wrote for PEOPLE in a special Mother’s Day essay earlier this yr, Mrs. Obama says, “I first discovered this fact from my very own mom, who made positive my brother and I had plenty of area to talk our minds, make errors, and comply with our passions, wherever they could lead. I attempt to do the identical with Sasha and Malia, honoring the distinctive flame each of them has inside.”

“They're their own individuals, and that’s what I really like about them,” Mrs. Obama says. “They usually’ve obtained to have room to breathe and discover.”

Because the Obamas left the White Home in 2017, the former president and first woman have been busy with their eponymous basis, the place she focuses efforts on increasing girls’ access to education worldwide, among other points — to not point out a record-smashing memoir, Becoming, and sold-out book tour. (President Obama is busy writing his own memoir, which might come out next yr, and the 2 are working with Netflix.)

Older daughter Malia Obama, 21, is in her third yr at Harvard University, which each of her mother and father attended.

“Barack and I try to make it possible for our daughters know that there’s no limit to what they can be or what they will achieve,” Mrs. Obama tells PEOPLE. “They don’t study that if their mother and father treat them like delicate little ornaments, set aside in order that they gained’t break. Women have to have the prospect to create and  explore and skin their knees every now and then, too.”

RELATED: Michelle Obama Looks Back on the ‘Panic,’ Vulnerability & Gratitude of Her Record-Setting Year

Last yr, in a PEOPLE cover story upon the release of Turning into, Mrs. Obama appeared again at her household’s eight years in the White Home and the highlight during which Malia and Sasha actually grew up.

“They are probably the most acknowledged teenagers on the earth, making an attempt to be out on the planet like regular youngsters,” she stated then. “And that’s exhausting if you’re a toddler, and day-after-day individuals are watching you, and you recognize that. There’s no time to only be … to blend in and have enjoyable and make mistakes or smoke your first cigarette or have your first kiss or have a boyfriend.”

“I try to remind them that even the toughest elements of this have value,” Mrs. Obama stated. “They’ve grown up with with the ability to maneuver it with grace.”

She informed PEOPLE then she was far from broken up about having an empty nest with President Obama.

“In contrast to my mother and father, who dropped me off at school and just had a telephone name, I text with my youngsters. I can textual content Malia proper this second and know what she’s considering. I really feel like she’s off on her next adventure, so I’m excited for her,” she stated. “I don’t want my youngsters to make me completely happy. I had them so that they’d be completely satisfied.”

RELATED: Michelle Obama’s Incredible 2019, from Breaking Records with Her Book to Being Praised by Beyoncé

Speaking with PEOPLE for this week’s difficulty, during which she was named one among 4 Individuals of the Yr, she talks about not what she’s dropping, together with her daughters shifting out, but what they're gaining.

“Probably the most gratifying a part of it all has been watching the women enter into their subsequent part of independence,” Mrs. Obama says. “Our position as mother and father is to boost self-sufficient, considerate, and compassionate individuals, and in order for them to completely embrace their own journeys, we have now to be prepared to let them go, in order that they will develop on their very own. That’s the one means they will turn out to be more.”

Src: The ‘Emotional’ Moment the Obamas Dropped Off 18-Year-Old Sasha at College: ‘We Wanted to Make It Feel Normal’
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