A series of letters written in the 1980s by former President Barack Obama have recently been recovered and made public for viewing at Emory University.
The letters are addressed to a long distance girlfriend of Barack’s at the time, Alexandra McNear, and cover topics ranging from struggles with racism to relationship strife to career doubts. The letters were written as Obama embarked on his first year at Columbia University, after transferring from Occidental College in Southern California.
The beauty of these nine letters lies in their authenticity and their timelessness. The man that went on to become the 44th president of the United States while also being the first African American man to do so spent his youth grappling with the same doubts and fears college students are facing today, students just like us right here at a 21st century Boston University. Obama’s letters emit a genuine rawness in a beautiful and articulate way, a way that is universally resonating for all people going through those formidable years. In a time of extreme change like going to college, it’s easy to have doubts — but Obama expresses the same concerns and questions college students all over the country face today.
Obama faced the same academic struggles students are plagued with now as well. He had the same realization then that upperclassmen at BU do now — that “it gets harder and harder to swim against the channels of specialization, as the course levels increase.” As smart and hardworking as he is, Obama found himself challenged in the same manner we do.
His letters reflect on life, describing how his high school friends fell into the jobs that their classes set up for them. He even deals with a fading, and an eventual faded, relationship over the course of the letters.
The letters tell perhaps the most intimate of human experiences, as Obama begins to question his relationship with McNear. He wrote “I think of you often, though I stay confused about my feelings,” and that he was “not so naïve as to believe that a distinct line exists between romantic love and the more quotidian, but perhaps finer bonds of friendship.” These questions are ones that surface with change and growth — two prime components of college years.
Relationships of all kinds change as people go through college, both in friendships and romances. This aspect of Obama’s letters speaks to the more difficult side of things, and brings comfort by reminding us that everyone is forced to reconsider relationships as they grow up.
Obama’s transition from a romance to a friendship coincides with another transition in his life, from a student to a member of the work force. His letters vent about money and career worries — completely and utterly unaware of what his future would hold.
And that’s where the appeal in these letters lies. While reading the series, I kept picturing Barack Obama at the podium. But at the same time, I was envisioning a typical college kid sitting at the cafe Obama described — one just like those that we spend all our hours at. It leaves room for nothing but hope and inspiration — that a kid our age, struggling with the same things we struggle with, had no idea what would come of him.
This man who became the leader of our nation struggled with feeling alone at college. He struggled with classes. Struggled with trying to navigate a relationship and failing. Struggled with trying to get some sort of grip on where in the world his place might be. These letters are an exemplary testament to just how human we all are.
