Malia Obama has embarked on a new journey since she began her collegiate career at Harvard University earlier this third quarter. After taking a gap year to carry out an internship with the Weinstein Company in New York City, the bright young woman had to say goodbye to her family as she planted her roots in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For her father, Barack Obama, it was hard to part ways even if it’s just for a temporary period of time.
During a speech at the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children on Monday evening (Sept. 25), the former president revisited the time he dropped his eldest daughter off at the Ivy League school. “For those of us who have daughters, it just happens fast,” he said, per TIME. “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.”
Obama then admitted that he shed a few tears out of Malia’s sight and described the moment as a “rough” time. “I was proud that I did not cry in front of her. But on the way back, the Secret Service was off, looking straight ahead, pretending they weren’t hearing me as I sniffled and blew my nose,” he shared. “It was rough.”
The Obamas decided to remain in Washington, D.C. as Sasha Obama finishes off her high school tenure at Sidwell Friends School.