Barack Obama says dropping daughter Malia off at college was 'like open-heart surgery'
Just like any other parent, dropping his firstborn child, Malia, off at college wasn't easy for Barack Obama. During a speech at a fundraising event for the Beau Biden Foundation on Tuesday, September 26, the former president opened up about the emotional day that he and his wife Michelle took their 19-year-old to Harvard.
VIEW GALLERY Barack compared dropping Malia off at college to open-heart surgery Photo: Getty Images
"For those of us who have daughters, it just happens fast. I dropped off Malia at college, and I was saying to Joe and Jill [Biden] that it was a little bit like open-heart surgery," the dad-of-two, 56, confessed.
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“I was proud that I did not cry in front of her,” Barack added. “But on the way back, the secret service was looking straight ahead pretending they weren’t hearing me as a sniffed and blew by nose. It was rough.”
VIEW GALLERY Barack and Michelle's oldest daughter is a freshman at Harvard Photo: Getty Images
Barack, who is also a father to 16-year-old daughter Sasha, noted that Malia’s sendoff is a "reminder that, at the end of our lives, whatever else we’ve accomplished, the things that we’ll remember are the joys that our children – and hopefully way later, our grandchildren bring us.”
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Michelle and her husband moved Malia into her freshman dorm at Harvard University in August. The college student, who is a member of the prestigious university’s class of 2021, graduated from Washington D.C.'s private Sidwell Friends School in June 2016. The former first daughter opted to take a gap year before starting at the private Cambridge, Massachusetts university, choosing to travel and do an internship during her time off.
