Obama recalls starting her new job as an executive director for Public Allies. Although the position made Michelle nervous, she was up to it. "To me, the job felt almost like destiny,” (Obama 130). The author illustrates her role in Public Allies, including how the organization managed to gain funding, and finding allies themselves (Obama 131-133). The author continues to chronicle her role as a supportive wife in Barack's life. Barack had found a "noble balance" in his life having worked as "a lawyer, a teacher, and as an organizer" (Obama 133). Thus, when Barack decided to run for Senate in 1996, Michelle was not surprised but provided her husband with support, as well as a warning that if he gets elected, he may end up changing nothing. In 1996 “Barack was elected to the Illinois Senate and sworn in two months later” (Obama 135).

Michelle also accounts their struggle to conceive, including the pain of miscarrying after a long process of waiting. The author states, “A miscarriage is lonely, painful, and demoralizing almost on a cellular level” (Obama 138). Despite trying Clomid, a drug intended to stimulate egg production, the Obamas were still unsuccessful. Michelle and Barack finally decided to try in-vitro fertilization. It was then that Michelle decided to start a daily regimen of shots and administering drugs to suppress her ovaries (Obama 138). Eight weeks later, an ultrasound revealed that Michelle was pregnant, and all the resentment and negative feelings faded away.