Becoming

Lesson 1. Early years.

Michelle had a pleasant family from whom she gained different perspectives in life. Right from the early years of her life, she started to learn a great deal from her family. Her parents never failed to teach her new things and always gave her the freedom to fight hard and be herself. Her father, Fraser Robinson III, who worked at a water filtration plant in the Chicago South Shore, was a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. He was the kind of person who was afraid of debt and used to save up every penny he earned. Every day, after coming to home from work, he used to tell her stories about the then ongoing political unrest and social turmoil. But, Michelle was too young to understand the political issues. The person Michelle admired the most was Craig Robinson, her brother who was two years older than her. She admired him for his broad-mindedness and his flexibility, due to which he could mingle with almost everyone. Both Michelle and Craig, had a great deal of exposure to the outside world, right from their young years; thanks to their mother. 

Their mother, Marian Shields, was an immensely open-minded person, who always gave her children the freedom to make their own decisions. Her common words were, “I am raising adults, not kids.” Being an expert at sewing and actively participating in the Community FundRaising, she always taught Michelle to never back down and take a stand for what she felt was right.

Lesson 2. Rendezvous with Music.

Michelle and her family lived on the second floor of an apartment, while her great aunt and uncle stayed on the first floor. Music was something that brought all the Robinsons together. Her grandfather, G. F. Shield, who was also known as ‘Southside’, and a great lover of jazz music, bought Michelle her first ever record: Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book.   

Her great-aunt, Robbie, was a piano teacher and an expert at playing the musical instrument. On any day, Michelle could hear all the random piano noises by Robbie’s students. At the age of four, intrigued by the melodious musical instrument, Michelle decided to learn the piano. Being a keen student, she started taking lessons from her aunt. Spotting the Middle C, among all the 88 keys, is no easy task while learning to play the piano. It is often hard to spot the key. Fortunately on Robbie’s piano, the Middle C was chipped and easy to spot.

Michelle showed great improvement quite quickly and wanted to skip to the advanced songs in the book. But, it failed to impress