When you think about the 4th of July, bonfires, patriotic outfits, and beachside fireworks probably come to mind. Maybe you’re preparing the perfect ensemble for Instagram purposes and attempting to rally your friends for a weekend that involves a body of water that’s not a bath tub. Perhaps you’re looking forward to enjoying the fireworks from the comfort of your own bedroom, where you don’t actually have to hang in the stifling heat. Whatever you choose, you finally have a long weekend to use however you like. 

Since you do have a long weekend, why not take the time to reflect on the beauty of ‘Merica by embracing our First Lady? There’s no better way than to get your American flag flying than with a First Lady refresher course featuring our current one.

Forget what you know about First Ladies… 

Maybe you learned about past First Ladies in AP US History, or maybe you’ve been bingeing on biographies since you realized that you wanted to be the first female president. Unfortunately, too often these First Ladies and their incredible accomplishments are overshadowed by what their husbands do, which means that you might’ve missed out on learning about these women in class. Whatever your knowledge base is, here’s a quick course on how Michelle Obama is living her dreams and inspiring girls everywhere to live theirs, too.

Michelle Obama is incredibly passionate about education because of her own experiences. 

Michelle Obama‘s background and current initiatives prove that she’s the perfect example of pursuing your dreams. Her time spent at Princeton University and Harvard Law School made her passionate about higher education for everyone (she’s one of only three First Ladies with a graduate degree).

She turned down a major opportunity to give back. 

Even before her First Lady-dom started, she was working towards improving the lives of others. In fact, she left her incredibly lucrative (we’re talking $120,000 a year) job as a law firm associate to do public service at City Hall, proving that she’s always been passionate about creating change. It was an incredible risk, because she was still in paying back student loans.

She has four major initiatives. 

If you’re unfamiliar with Michelle’s initiatives, they’re all geared to improve lives everywhere, and and she’s especially focused on women and kids. She’s spreading the word about healthy lifestyles with her most famous initiative, “Let’s Move!” which is a program that educates everyone about childhood obesity. She works with doctors and community leaders to create programs to combat the epidemic. Her other initiatives are “Joining Forces,” an initiative that supports the troops, and “Reach Higher,” which helps students live there dreams.

Reach Higher’s purpose is to inspire students to go past high school, whether they start at a trade academy, community college, or university. It complements “Let Girls Learn,” another one of her initiatives. Let Girls Learn works to educate and empower young women everywhere through education.

It’s incredibly awesome that Michelle’s using her position of power to help girls everywhere, in America and beyond. It’s even more impressive that she’s focusing on sending girls to school in bigger numbers. The next time you’re complaining about studying or you’ve spent hours at the library with no respite in sight, think of how lucky you are to have that opportunity.

[Images via Twitter]