Big day coming for Obamas: Malia graduating from high school
Even presidents are parents, and it hasn't always been easy for Barack Obama to watch as his nearly 18-year-old daughter —"one of my best friends" — has grown up fast, and in front of the whole world.
Months ago, the president blamed his emotions for declining an invitation to deliver this year's commencement address at Sidwell Friends, the elite school where Malia is among 127 members of the Class of 2016.
[...] delaying the start of college could keep her close to her tight-knit family as it prepares for another big transition early next year: the end of Obama's ground-breaking presidency.
Both parents often praise Malia and her sister for being normal, happy kids despite living lives that are anything but normal.
The young girl whose swing set still sits just outside the Oval Office is now taller than her 6-foot-1 dad, and turns heads whenever she's spotted around town.
After she and her sister attended their first White House state dinner in March and photos of the glammed-up girls appeared, the internet buzzed with reports that the designer gowns they wore retailed for thousands of dollars.
In choosing Harvard, she appears to have cast aside her parents' advice that students not feel pressured to attend a big-name school.